Snow Geese
I've spent considerable time the last few winters photographing the birds at the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge in San Antonio NM. Large mixed flocks of Snow Geese and Ross's Geese over winter here and I've managed to get a few good pictures.
Fall at the Pond
Into the Wind
Aglow
Rising With the Sun
Standing Watch
Junior, A Portrait
Portrait in Flight
Portrait at Sunrise
HEADS UP!!
Ross's Goose, A Portrait in Flight
I Rise With the Sun
Portrait in Flight
What a Blast!
Sunrise at the Flight Deck
No Comment
Dawn at the Roost
Down by the Pond
Young Blue Goose
Liftoff
Fall at the Pond
Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, San Antonio NM
November 16, 2019
Snow geese: What a beautiful fall day to hang out at the pond!
Into the Wind
Snow Geese, Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, San Antonio NM
November 10, 2017
A large flock of Snow Geese and Ross's Geese presented an interesting photo opportunity as they got wind tossed coming and going from their afternoon gathering at the main pond just inside the refuge on this windy November afternoon.
Aglow
Snow Goose, Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, San Antonio NM
December 21, 2016
The low afternoon sunlight set this Snow Goose aglow as it flew out of a corn field at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge.
Rising With the Sun
Fog Bank and Snow Geese, Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, San Antonio NM
January 1, 2017
Serendipity is my friend. I see an interesting fog bank lit by the rising sun, raise the camera to capture it, and up pops a cloud of Snow Geese perfectly mirroring the fog bank to complete the picture. How cool is that!
Serendipity
Serendipity means a "fortunate happenstance" or "pleasant surprise". It was coined by Horace Walpole in 1754. In a letter he wrote to a friend, Walpole explained an unexpected discovery he had made by reference to a Persian fairy tale, The Three Princes of Serendip. The princes, he told his correspondent, were "always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things which they were not in quest of". The notion of serendipity is a common occurrence throughout the history of scientific innovation such as Alexander Fleming's accidental discovery of penicillin in 1928, the invention of the microwave oven by Percy Spencer in 1945, and the invention of the Post-it note by Spencer Silver in 1968.
In June 2004 a British translation company voted the word to be one of the ten English words hardest to translate. However, due to its sociological use, the word has since been exported into many other languages.
Wikipedia
Happy New Year!
Standing Watch
Snow Goose, Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, San Antonio NM
December 6, 2016
In any flock of birds a few will be standing watch, ready to alert the flock to predators or other dangers, while the rest go about their daily business.
Junior, A Portrait
Juvenile Snow Goose, Dark Morph, Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, San Antonio NM
November 18, 2016
How beautiifully plumed this juvenile blue goose is! It was a priviledge to take its portrait.
Blue Goose
The snow goose has two color plumage morphs, white (snow) or gray/blue (blue), thus the common description as "snows" and "blues". White-morph birds are white except for black wing tips, but blue-morph geese have bluish-grey plumage replacing the white except on the head, neck and tail tip. The immature blue phase is drab or slate-gray with little to no white on the head, neck, or belly. Both snow and blue phases have rose-red feet and legs, and pink bills with black tomia ("cutting edges"), giving them a black "grin patch". The colors are not as bright on the feet, legs, and bill of immature birds. The head can be stained rusty-brown from minerals in the soil where they feed. They are very vocal and can often be heard from more than a mile away.
Wikipedia
Portrait in Flight
Juvenile Snow Goose, White Morph, Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, San Antonio NM
November 19, 2015
Snow Goose Plumage
The snow goose has two color plumage morphs, white (snow) or gray/blue (blue), thus the common description as "snows" and "blues." White-morph birds are white except for black wing tips, but blue-morph geese have bluish-grey plumage replacing the white except on the head, neck and tail tip. The immature blue phase is drab or slate-gray with little to no white on the head, neck, or belly. Both snow and blue phases have rose-red feet and legs, and pink bills with black tomia ("cutting edges"), giving them a black "grin patch." The colors are not as bright on the feet, legs, and bill of immature birds. The head can be stained rusty-brown from minerals in the soil where they feed. They are very vocal and can often be heard from more than a mile away.
White- and blue-morph birds interbreed and the offspring may be of either morph. These two colors of geese were once thought to be separate species; since they interbreed and are found together throughout their ranges, they are now considered two color phases of the same species. The color phases are genetically controlled. The dark phase results from a single dominant gene and the white phase is homozygous recessive. When choosing a mate, young birds will most often select a mate that resembles their parents' coloring. If the birds were hatched into a mixed pair, they will mate with either color phase.
Wikipedia
Portrait at Sunrise
Snow Goose, Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, San Antonio NM
November 20, 2014
I captured this pair of Snow Geese just as the sun’s first rays broke over the horison to light these beautiful birds.
HEADS UP!!
Snow Geese and Coyote, Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, San Antonio NM
January 29, 2015
These geese are alert but they don’t seem too too worried that old three-legged coyote is going to snatch a meal this morning. The coyote isn’t as close to them as my telephoto lens might indicate.
Ross's Goose, A Portrait in Flight
Leaving the Roost, Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, San Antonio NM
December 20, 2014
Not all the geese in the flocks wintering here are Snow Geese. Maybe 10-20% are actually Ross’s Geese.
Ross’s Goose
This goose breeds in northern Canada, mainly in the Queen Maud Gulf Migratory Bird Sanctuary, and winters much further south in the continent in the southern United States and occasionally northern Mexico.
The plumage of this species is white except for black wing tips. It is similar in appearance to a white-phase snow goose, but about 40% smaller. Other differences from the snow goose are that the bill is smaller in proportion to its body and lacks "black lips". The dark phase is extremely rare.
Ross's goose is a rare vagrant to Western Europe, but it is commonly kept in wildfowl collections, so the true frequency of wild birds is hard to ascertain. Escaped or feral specimens are encountered frequently, usually in the company of other feral geese such as Canada, greylag, and barnacle geese. However, individuals or small groups that seemed to be of natural origin have turned up in the Netherlands and Britain.
This species is named in honor of Bernard R. Ross, a Hudson's Bay Company factor at Fort Resolution in Canada's Northwest Territories.
Wikipedia
I Rise With the Sun
Snow Goose, Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, San Antonio NM
November 30, 2014
"Whether I retire to bed early or late, I rise with the sun." - Thomas Jefferson
Portrait in Flight
Snow Goose, Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, San Antonio NM
November 23, 2014
One of my pleasures is capturing bird portraits and I especially like those captured in flight. This is one of my favorites.
What a Blast!
Snow Geese (and some Ross's Geese) Taking Off, Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, San Antonio NM
November 23, 2014
One of the great attractions of the Bosque in winter is watching the huge flocks of Snow Geese blast off all together from the roost or from a farm field where they are grazing. It’s quite a blast!
Sunrise at the Flight Deck
Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, San Antonio NM
November 14, 2014
It’s not every morning the clouds are positioned to greet the sun so gloriously just as the Snow Geese are leaving for the day.
No Comment
Snow Geese on an Icy Morning, Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, San Antonio NM
January 10, 2013
No Comment. Nope.
Dawn at the Roost
Sandhill Cranes and Snow Geese, Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, San Antonio NM
December 14, 2013
An experiment in low light.
Down by the Pond
A Still Life, Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, San Antonio NM
December 26, 2013
Snow Goose down and Western Sunflower seedheads; a still life.
Young Blue Goose
Snow Goose, Dark Morph Juvenile, Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, San Antonio NM
December 19, 2013
Juvenile Snow Goose, Dark Morph; a portrait in early light.
Liftoff
Snow Geese, Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, San Antonio NM
December 4, 2013
A flock of Snow Geese blasting off from the Farm Fields.