This gallery contains 2 photos. Look! Up in the sky! It’s more of us! Probably coming in for a landing. I was surprised to see Snow Geese goosestepping at Iona Beach Regional Park. I am used to seeing thousands of these geese in flight, and, less often, an equally large number on farms in the fall, winter, and spring–usually from a great distance, which makes closeups impossible. Never before had I seen them this close in the wild, so atypically comfortable with the humans walking in their midst.
A curious gaggle of snow geese (gaggle being the proper term of venery for 5 or more SNGOs)
(f/5.6, 1/250, 247mm, ISO 800)
As the sun slowly slipped to the horizon, wave after wave of Snow Geese would descend to the grounds just west of the washrooms. I was witness to many white and reddish faces, juveniles and adults, those infamous grin (“black lips”) patches, and varying plumages of white and grey. There were avian “sentries” posted, to be sure, to sound the alarm should danger present itself in their midst, but no one took to the wing. Photographed on January 17.
Is she taking *our* photo? Looks like they’re having a discussion about me!
(f/7.1, 1/500, 403mm, ISO 1600)
The reddish stains you see on their faces are a result of the iron in the earth where they feed (their eggs also stain easily). Although I hoped to find one, there was no Ross’s Goose in the midst of the 2,000+ strong flock; the same went for the blue morph (colour mutation) of Snow Geese. Still, it was a lovely experience to be so close to so many!
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What a wonderful experience you had, thanks for sharing it.
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thank you, Susan!
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How wonderful! Their faces look more reddish now than when they were down here for the Winter. I’d love to see them in person looking like this too.
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thank you, Deb! I’ve only seen them up close in the zoo before … the blue morphs as well as the regularly colored white ones. for those ones, their faces were pristine white! 🙂
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Lovely pictures you managed to capture.
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thank you, Lena! I was lucky to be in the area at that time. 🙂
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Nice shots. Interesting about the red faces. Love the 2 looking at each other, like a mirror image.
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thank you, Mary! it was a very human gesture on their parts. 😉
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They are very beautiful these snow geese.
I love your pictures.
Beautiful day.
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thank you, Hervé!
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Bellissime, grazie per la condivisione!
Saluti, Patrizia
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grazie, Patrizia! 🙂
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Funky coloring on the snow geese! Love the close-up of their faces and wacky beaks. 🙂 My sister works at a school in Richmond and she saw hundreds of them in a field this past winter. She only bad her not-so-great Samsung phone with her so I’m glad to see your much nicer photos. 😄
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“Had”, not “bad”…autocorrect is the bane of my existence. 😜
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until I saw these up close, I didn’t really notice the staining. 🙂 but then again, I certainly never expected to be in the snow goose “arrivals” area! 😉
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Beautiful birds .. That is so interesting about the red staining. Lovely images
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thank you, Julie!
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