Chen caerulescens (snow goose)

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Snow goose (chen caerulescens)

Well, when you go out to photograph northern harriers, and they don't cooperate, you go ahead and photograph the tens of thousands of snow geese that have been squawking at the top of their lungs for the last 3 hours.

Every year an enormous population of lesser snow geese from Wrangle Island in the Arctic Ocean north and west of the Bering Strait spend the winter foraging on coastal marshes and agricultural land in western Washington.

This gaggle was moving from a nearby farm field out to raft in Puget Sound, presumable for the night, as they were still rafting in the Sound when I returned an hour before sunrise the following day. Here, they paused for an hour or so in this marsh at the Nature Conservancies' Port Susan preserve, until a Bald Eagle flyover sent the flock literally exploding into the air. It is a sight and sound that is difficult to describe. It is thunderously loud and the sound is made up of tens of thousands of wing beats and voices. It is literally awe inspiring to be standing underneath it...desperately hoping you don't get pooped on.

Nikon D300, Nikkor 300mm f/4, Nikkor TC-1.4E II teleconverter, f25 1/15 ISO 640, spot metered, +.3 exposure comp.

Over the last few weeks I have shot these geese several times, Always sharp and fast so it stopped the action. None of these shots conveyed the feeling of standing there. Finally it occurred to me to slow the shutter down a ton and stop down for some extra depth to pull in the still-stationary birds on the waters. This way the motion shows in the sky with just enough detail in the birds on the water. Still, there were dozens of shots that were trash due to hand holding shots that were this slow. This was the one I thought had the best balance.