We're heading to Bellingham for a couple of days, then to Whidbey Island. We usually bail off the freeway in favor of driving one of our favorite twisty roads, Chuckanut Drive. It's usually a quick short-cut across the Skagit Valley north of Mount Vernon, and today we got a surprise: the snow geese have arrived.
Every year, snow geese migrate by the tens of thousands from nesting grounds in Siberia and Alaska. The Skagit Valley is one of their major wintering grounds, with more than 50,000 birds typically stopping over between November and early spring.
They're a month early this year, touching down in the farmlands of the Skagit Valley last week.
Just a few weeks ago, this was a field of corn that towered way over my head. Today, the stubble draws the geese like a magnet. Even when we pulled off on the shoulder and I got out with my camera, my presence caused no more than a flutter of movement. The geese were far more interested in eating.
There were geese in flight the whole time I stood there, and masses of geese turning every corner of the field white.
That's a lot of geese!
ReplyDeleteWe don't have geese like this, so cool to see so many of them.
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