RHH's photos with the keyword: chen

Huge flocks of Snow Geese winter in the Skagit Valley near Mount Vernon, Washington. We've gone several times to see them and this is a photo from last year's excursion.

This what happens when one gets to close to the huge flocks of Snow Geese that winter in the Skagit Valley - the geese take flight and then circle around to land nearby. What the photo can't show is the incredible noise they make even when they are on the ground, but especially when they are taking flight. This picture was taken last year, but we are headed there today to see the geese and the Trumpeter Swans that also winter in the area.

These snow geese were photographed in the tulip and daffodil fields in the Skagit Valley. The geese seemed to prefer the unplanted, grassy areas but some of the bulb fields are visible in the distance. There were thousands of geese and the noise they made was deafening.

Snow Geese winter in huge flocks in the Skagit Valley of Washington. We were planning to see them last Friday but the weather was awful, so I'm posting this older picture instead of the one I wasn't able to take.

Taken this spring in the Skagit Valley, this photo shows a few of the Snow Geese that winter there. When we saw them there were thousands of them feeding and when disturbed flying up and circling and returning.

I had trouble with uploading a photo last night. For some reason they would not show up in my photostream after I uploaded them. After repeated efforts I gave up only to wake this morning and find that I had uploaded a lot of pictures. This is the one I've left, and thanks to all those who patiently ignored the rest. These are Snow Geese, Chen caerulescens, wintering in the Skagit Valley. There were thousands of them and the noise was unbelievable. Periodically someone would get too close and huge numbers of them would fly off, circle around and return. We spent several hours photographing them. It was quite a show!

This is another photo from our visit to the Skagit Valley bulb farms when we saw the huge flocks of snow geese that winter there. I liked this shot both because it shows some of the geese coming in to land and because it shows a dark color form sometimes known as a "Blue Goose."

This is another shot from the Skagit Valley. We had gone to see the tulips and daffodils and ended up watching and photographing the huge flocks of Snow Geese that had wintered in the fields and still had not left for the Arctic. These two were coming in for a landing after circling around. Someone would get too close or a noise would spook them and many of them would take off only to return as these two were doing.

We were out for the day today photographing a very early spring and while visiting the Skagit Valley to see the daffodils and tulips (the daffodils are at their peak and the tulips are started), we saw the most amazing thing - thousands of Snow Geese which had been wintering in the valley. Most of the time they were feeding on the ground but occasionally something would spook them and large groups of them would start flying. Whether feeding or flying the noise was incredible. We spent several hours photographing them and though I have some better pictures I wanted to post this to give some idea of the huge numbers. Snow Geese breed on the arctic tundra but winter as far south as Mexico.