Snow Geese

On down the road a ways, near Stanwood, we found a flock of Snow Geese. These are smaller, somewhat less graceful birds than the swans and the black on the wings make then easy to distinguish.

As you can see, in flight the shorter neck is easy to spot and the prominent black wing tips makes it unmistakable that you are seen a snow goose.

The juveniles are also gray, but the black markings are already present, so even here there is no mistaking this for a swan. On the ground you can see that the face is much more duck-like than the longer headed swan.

Also the mature birds grow out of the black beak and sport an orange on that really puts them squarely in the goose family.

This flock was not large, but it was a noisy place. In a field nearby we found a fellow putting out decoys, all white with black markings clearly intended to attract geese. By the time we left, he had gotten his gun and was lying on the ground amongst the decoys.