Posted on February 29, 2016 in Birds, People, Wildlife
A sure sign that Spring is around the corner is when the snow geese return to Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area in Pennsylvania on their annual migration north. I spent some time with 80,000+ of my feathered friends over the weekend and they did not disappoint. I love the challenge of finding new and interesting ways to photograph the migration. For me, part of the fun is people watching. The number of photographers, birders, nature enthusiasts and even dogs, seems to increase every year. Everyone loves to photograph the geese … no matter what type of camera they have. I love this fun shot of a couple watching the geese return to the lake at dusk while photographing with a cell phone camera.
Posted on February 18, 2016 in Birds, Wildlife, Winter
The snow geese are starting to return to Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area in Pennsylvania. Every winter, they head north to their breeding grounds, stopping at Middle Creek along the way. Mid-February to mid-March is usually when they visit, but timing is dependent upon the amount of ice covering the water and the amount of snow on adjacent fields. The geese feed in the fields during the day and roost on the water overnight, so ice and snow cover keeps the birds away. I’m looking forward to a few visits to Middle Creek this year…it’s become an annual photography excursion for me. This image is from last year on a day when there were over 100,000 snow geese at Middle Creek!
Posted on October 27, 2015 in Birds, Nature, Wildlife
While I was out photographing Fall color over the weekend, I visited a lake that had plenty of ducks and geese. Mostly all of the ducks were Mallards, and then there was this little Merganser. I haven’t seen this species before, so I was able to add it to my “Life List”.
Posted on August 7, 2015 in Birds, Landscape, Painting Effect
As soon as I opened this image I saw the dark “spot” in the center/left (above the roof of the houses behind the farm). I zoomed in a bit and lo and behold, it’s a bird flying over the landscape. Question is….what type of bird? It’s large and when zoomed, it just might have a white head. How cool if I accidentally included a bald eagle in flight while photographing the Lancaster, Pa. scenery!
Posted on March 24, 2015 in Birds, Nature, Spring, Wildlife
No, these are not statues of snow geese, they are actual snow geese. Greater Snow Geese to be exact. They almost look too perfect, don’t they? In Spring the snow geese travel from points along the East coast as far south as South Carolina and make their way to the Arctic where they breed. They can spend up to 12 hours per day feeding in Spring to build up fat reserves for migration. When migrating, they can fly at altitudes of up to 7,500 feet. When preparing to land, they may tumble to lose height in what has been described as a “falling leaf” maneuver. Over the weekend, we saw thousands of snow geese coming to join the flock from a very high altitude. The way that the sun was shining on them, they looked like glitter falling from heaven.