Canada Geese

This month’s featured image was captured while enjoying a vacation in Chincoteague on Oyster Bay. Where we were staying sits right next to a little cove, with a gut that cuts up into the land that creates a tidal wetland that has not been developed (yet). This little cove was very popular with wading birds on the hunt. White Ibis and Tri-Colored Heron regularly used the cove for hunting. Every morning at sunrise, several pairs of Canada Geese parents would bring their chicks up along the bank of Oyster Bay, passing by our place and into this cove. Then they would lead the chicks up into the marsh and they would slowly disappear into the marsh grasses.

One afternoon, the pair of Canada Geese in this image came leisurely swimming along the bank to settle into this little cove. They joined a crowd of birds already there hunting in the shallow water. A White Ibis had caught a crab and was dancing with a Seagull who had decided that it wanted the White Ibis’s crab for its meal. The White Ibis was jumping and dodging in the water with the crab in its beak while the Seagull hovered and dove down from above. It was a wild and wacky fight for a meal. Luckily the White Ibis did enough to stave off the Seagull and it got to keep its well earned meal.

While that drama was playing out, these two geese were just sitting there minding their own business. They stood in the shallow water of the cove and spent about ten minutes preening themselves. And then it was over and in a flash they were airborne. Luckily, they flew in front of me, heading back towards where they came. So I snapped away and this is one of the images that I captured of that flight..

This image has been added to the PRINTS gallery.

I am so lucky to have captured this image of two geese in flight and am extremely happy with it. I could not have captured two birds with such striking wing positions if I had tried. With its mouth wide open the goose with the upturned wings was making the familiar “honk” call as well. What makes this image so successful for me, is the perspective from which I took this image. Like most modern beach homes, this house was built on pillars that elevates it off the ground. If (and hopefully not when) flooding occurs, the house is safely elevated above the flood waters. This makes the ground floor of this building the second story of a regular home. And so it was on an elevated deck that I was taking these images. I was at the same height of the geese as they flew by. This would have been a much different image if I had been standing down on the ground looking up as they passed by.

While this image was not taken in October (shame!), I thought it would be appropriate for it to represent the month. Fall is officially here and we should start hearing and seeing the flights of migratory birds as they head south for the winter. Growing up on Delmarva, I have fond memories of the clouds of geese that would fly by in their “V” formations in the fall and spring as they were on their journey. So, for all the hunters, waterfowl lovers and hopefully everyone else, this one’s for you.