Snow Geese

Over the last week I've seen many Snow Geese at Creamer's Field.  Mostly they've been in pairs or small groups.

Early afternoon on Friday when I looked way out in the field past a row of trees I saw a big group of Sandhill Cranes hanging out.

I didn't see the Snow Geese until a big flock flew up and across the field.  Enlarge the photo above and if you look carefully you can spot the Snow Geese in among the Cranes.  They blend quite well with the strips of snow.

They landed on one of the larger puddles and became more visible.  They were still a good distance away, just close enough to identify with the naked eye.  

I am often surprised at what I see when I load photos on my computer and enlarge them! 

Happy Mother's Day!

Evening Visit to Creamer's Field

Tuesday evening my granddaughter Sydney and I went to Creamer's Field to see the geese.  Sydney was excited to see all the birds.

 She said hello to the Canada Geese.

 She enjoyed seeing all the activity in the field.

But she is four, after all, and she had her puddle boots on, and her new rain paints, and the puddles and squishy snow were the best part of our visit!

I love the feather patterns when the cranes spread their wings, and I added a filter to accentuate the patterns.

I have been trying to get a photo showing the three different kinds of geese at the field:  Snow Geese, Canada Geese, and White-fronted Geese.  The one below does that nicely, although it was slightly out of focus.  Again, adding a filter helped to highlight the feather patterns.

More later.....

Finally!!

There's still snow on the ground, but in the last few days it's went down considerably.  If you look at the barns at Creamer's Field it doesn't look a whole lot different....

.....but it's another story in the front field!

It's been transformed into many ponds, and the birds have arrived in large numbers.

I was able to identify Trumpeter Swans, Sandhill Cranes, Canada Geese, White-fronted Geese, Snow Geese, Northern Pintails, Mallards, and Gulls.

It will take me a while to go through the many hundreds of photos I took, not to mention the many more I'll take in the next few days.  I'll be posting lots more photos of the birds, but here are a few close-ups of a Sandhill Crane, Snow Geese and Canada Geese, and a White-fronted Goose.

Check back to see more over the next week or so.

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In the meantime, check out more old barns at Tricia's Barn Charm.

White Barn and White Geese

While I was in the Skagit Valley in Washington last week I saw this old white barn.

It was a wet rainy day and it looked a little forlorn sitting there in the rain.

In the field next to it were some Snow Geese. I think they were considerably happier to be out in the rain.

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To see more old barns hop on over to Tricia's Barn Charm by clicking on the barn below.

Devil Duck Photo

I was looking at the Devil Duck photo that I talked about a few posts ago. It suddenly dawned on me that the "horns" were not another bird behind him but actually the feathers of his wing tips. Look straight down and you can see the wing tip of the other bird and it looks the same, and you can see part of his wing under his neck. There is another bird behind him, just over his back, and I think that's what threw me off. If you click on the uncropped photo in the original post I think you will see that more clearly. The amazing thing to me is that I looked at this photo a lot, and had zoomed in on that spot while trying to remove the "horns", and just today it was really clear to me that it was his wing. So, given that, the un-photoshoped photo is the one I have to go with.

Snow Geese Pair

This morning at Creamer's Field there was a pair of snow geese. Their beautiful white feathers made them stand out amongst the Canada Geese and the White Fronted Geese.