Wednesday, March 08, 2006

Blue phase goose

I just like singing it in my head to the tune of Elvis's "Blue Suede Shoes."

Actually, it refers to the uncommon coloration of certain snow geese. I haven't researched it. All I know is that last night, walking to campus to hear Kwame Dawes read his poems (wonderful reading!), I heard snow geese flying over. So today, Randy and I drove out to the Montour Preserve, which has a really big lake (on which, currently, all boating is banned because, sadly, someone drowned recently and they haven't found the body), on which thousands--two thousand? three?--of snow geese had landed.

The noise was tremendous. We crept slowly from the parking lot to the covered shelter, carrying the camera and tripod. Hundred of geese milled around on the banks, but most were in the water, flapping, ducking, splashing, swimming around, taking off from one area to land in another. Most were white, but I counted maybe ten "blue phase" geese. Just before we left--Randy had the camera at this point; we had traded it back and forth a few times--I saw a dark flock coming in, about sixty birds, and hollered at him to look to his left. He took several shots as a big rowdy gang of Canada geese landed on the water. Such a sight. I love living here.

Photos soon.

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