Snow Geese | Lancaster Photographer

If you’ve never been to Middle Creek Wildlife Preserve I highly recommend making a trip there sometime. It is a beautiful reserve with some great little hiking trails and lots of bird watching. My family and I sometimes go there in the summer to hike and have a picnic. But, one of the highlights for me is visiting this time of year to see the Snow Geese. It is an experience you’ll never forget; seeing thousands of these birds flying in for their “rest stop” before continuing the long journey up north for the summer. Don’t ask me why they go up north. If it were me I’d be going south, but I’m sure they know what they are doing! These birds literally cover the fields in white making it look like there is snow on the ground. Last year was the first time I had gone to see them with my mum. It was a truly amazing experience. As we were leaving there was something that startled the flock and before our eyes was this wave of birds rising into the air. The sight of thousands and thousands of birds rising up and flying over top of us was an incredibly mesmerizing sight. The sound of their frantic calls was audibly intriguing. I left that day moved by the beauty of nature and  also somehow escaped without being pooped on :)

I was excited when my mum told me the geese were in early this year, so on a Sunday afternoon my parents, me and David took a drive to see them. With my camera in hand I was determined to get some shots that would capture the vastness of the sights. We came around the bend that opened up to the view of all the birds in the field. To our disappointment there were none there! Over on the lake was a small flock, but hardly an amount that would give a feel for the vastness I had seen last year . I was so bummed, but we stayed a little while watching a small flock of injured geese as they ate alongside the banks. Suddenly my mum freaked out as she had spotted, with her binoculars, the flocks in the field on the other side of the lake. We decided to make our way towards the field hoping there was a road that lead us to these birds.

We found them :) And it was a glorious sight. While there didn’t seem to be as many as the day I saw them last year, I was still moved by these magnificent birds.  I’ve heard that even more have come in since I was there a few weeks ago. You should definitely go to see them before they head on out! Anyway, here are a few shots I got while we were there.