Snow Geese at Dead Creek

I had never seen the annual spectacle of snow geese stopping over on their southward migration at the Dead Creek Wildlife Management Area in Addison County, VT. So never mind wrist, elbow and shoulder tendinitis:  the weather was right, and, dosed up on the maximum amount of ibuprofen, I drove the 2 1/2 hours to get there. When I arrived about 10:30 I was in for a great  disappointment: the geese were on a meadow about 2 football fields away, barely visible  from the viewing area with my 10 x binoculars. There were just a couple of people around and they mentioned that the geese used to come right up to the fence of the viewing area but had stayed away from it for the past 2 years.

I spent a couple of hours exploring the Brilyea Access wildlife management area, saw a some Black Ducks, Wood Ducks, Mallards, several White-throated Sparrows and Yellow-rumped Warblers. On my way back I drove around to the other side of the field and found the view from there marginally better. As I was walking back to my car though, suddenly a great commotion, thousands of geese were suddenly rising up in the air, first heading toward me, but then circling around for several minutes and finally settling back on the same meadow. Fortunately I had my camera ready to go:

Snow Geese resting on the meadow

then suddenly rising up

circling about with a great deal of honking

and finally settling back down

It was a happy day!