Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Easter in Choteau


We discovered after we arrived on Thursday night that the snow geese were at Freezeout Lake. Sunday afternoon we arrived at the lake around 5pm and were so lucky to meet Mike Schwitters and his wife Connie. Mike is the snow geese expert with Fish and Wildlife and he educated us about our amazing sight. The geese were arriving from the coast of Oregon, a trip of 600 miles. They came in at an altitude of about 2 miles, diving down with their wings locked, coming in and out of view as tiny white specks that grew larger or seemed to appear out of nowhere. One in 1,000 are dark, called a "blue goose," a genetic aberration, and their numbers help to identify the migrational flock's destination, in our case from southern California to Saskatchewan. The flocks rest at night and go out to feed in the morning (7:10 am to be exact!) and again in the evening (what we were able to see as we waited, around 6 pm.). The video does not do the sight justice, but it's the best we've got.



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