Wild Wednesday ...

... World Wildlife Day!

What an amazing day we had!!  Our road trip that I mentioned yesterday was to Middle Creek, PA to see the Snow Geese!  And we couldn't have picked a more perfect day!  There were approximately 70K - 100K snow geese .... as well as tundra swans, Canada geese and misc. ducks! It was the perfect way to celebrate World Wildlife Day!  Yes ... that's a real day!

The most optimal time to arrive at Middle Creek is at sunrise but since the travel time is about one and a half hours that wasn't an option for us. I'm not an early riser!  So we left the house at around 8:45 am and arrived at 10:30 ... almost 2 hours! 

The parking lot was packed but luckily there was a disability parking space that we grabbed as I qualify for parking there.  Cars lined the street going in so we were very lucky.  The walk into the viewing area is at least a half a mile so I felt bad for all the families that had to park outside the parking area and then had to walk to the viewing area.  Most people were wearing masks ... including us. 

Once we got to the viewing area ... which is the edge of the lake ... we found a great spot to set up our cameras and that's pretty much where we stayed the entire time.  I love watching not only the snow geese but all the people ... I've added an extra (second one) of some other sights besides the snow geese.  The first extra is another collage because I simply had too many pictures to post just the one.  The upper right picture in the first collage is of three beautiful tundra swans ... they are so graceful despite their large size. 

What everyone waits for is what I call "repositioning" when most of the geese take flight and then land back down.  We had to wait a while for this to happen but then we saw it multiple times.  I shot some video with both the camera and my smartphone.  Shooting video with the camera was difficult because you have to put it on "live view" and watch the back screen to focus.  The sun was so bright I had a hard time seeing the screen and was shooting the video pretty much blind!  I've added a video that Richard edited for me to my Nikon Image space ... you can see it here (please click on small image to go full screen and then press the "play" button to view and be sure to have your sound on!)   When I uploaded to this sight it's automatically downsized so the quality isn't what it should be.  But it's still amazing to watch! The voices you hear are several young children very excited to see this spectacle. 

As you watch the video (it's less than a minute long) try to wrap your head around 70-100 THOUSAND geese taking flight!  They do this in waves which is just spectacular to watch ... the video and these photos can't do it justice.  You have to be there. 

We spent several hours here and then returned home ... getting back by 4:00 pm.   What an fantastic road trip we had! If you even get the chance to be in the Middle Creek area (see area on map) during these migrations you need to take the time to see this ... you won't regret it one bit!