Sunday, April 5, 2009

Honey Lake Update: Snow Geese

1 I hadn't planned on making a Honey Lake update so soon after the last one, but as MOH and I were driving by Friday we came across this huge herd flock of snow geese, which looked like a mass of little tiny sheep, until we got closer. Snow geese are known to winter in the area or region, though I've never seen them before.
2 Turns out they had gathered themselves together in almost the exact place I took a couple photos for my last Honey Lake update, right in front of the place I call "the bluff," near The Island, south of Milford. Looking closely, past the geese and to the watery place to the left of the bluff, it looks like the water is a bit lower than it was about two weeks ago (photos for the March 29 post were taken on March 20 and 21).
3 Some of the snow geese show rust-stained heads, which is at least sometimes common, according to the Peterson Field Guide. They are all just standing around, munching on grass, doing what geese do, on the other side of the fence along Highway 395 between Reno and Susanville.
4 Enlarged version of snow geese!
5 Snow geese flying, because of our proximity. We parked the Prius on the side of the road right next to the roadside fence. The geese show their distinctive black-tipped wings, and their even more distinctive "grinning black lips" - a thin black line on their orange beaks.
6 And we drive away, still having at least a few miles to go.

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