Monday, December 3, 2012
Snow is Gone, Snow Geese Are Still Here
A day of rain and another of 50-degree temperatures, and our snow is all gone. But our Snow Geese are still here by the many hundreds on Loughberry Lake in the middle of Saratoga Springs. Lots of birders with binoculars and scopes stood on the shore of the lake when I stopped to view the geese today. I chatted with a few of them, and none had ever seen such an enormous flock stop off on Loughberry Lake. I have seen reports of other unusually huge flocks of these beautiful white birds landing on other waterways and fields in the surrounding area. I'm wondering if this summer's drought in the central U.S. has created a severe grain shortage along this goose's typical migration routes, causing them to alter their flight patterns as they move from the far north to warmer waters.
I couldn't get the whole flock in a single still photo, so I made a short video: