(Note: I will be displaying work at the upcoming “Fall Harvest Arts & Craft Show”, this Friday and Saturday at the John Knox Pavilion in Lee’s Summit, Missouri. If you live, or will be in the area, stop by and say “Hi”. I will be featuring some new prints on a metal surface. I’m excited about them and I think they will be very popular! Friday’s show is 11:00am to 7:00pm and Saturday will be 10:00am to 5:00pm, and admissions is free!)
From a few years ago, with the great fall bird migration in the Mississippi River flyway, from one of my favorite “local” places to shoot … Squaw Creek NWR, in northwest Missouri. When the Snow Geese migrate through the area, there are sometimes as many as a million that stop by the refuge for feeding and resting, on their way to the Gulf shores. When something startles the large mass of geese on the refuge waters, they go into a frenzy:
In this instance, an adult Bald Eagle flying into the area (sitting on a muskrat hut in the following image) will certainly cause the group to scatter:
I’ve been watching the bird inventory at Squaw Creek. So far, the numbers of birds are increasing, but the numbers of Snow Geese have not yet materialized. With the pending Arctic cold front moving through this next week, I’m expecting the migration to begin shortly … and I plan on being there!
Photographic Equipment Used:
- Canon 1D Mark 2 body
- Canon EF500mm, f/4 IS lens, with IS “Off”
- Bogen 3221 tripod, with Wemberly gimball head (version 1)
- ISO 200
- Aperture f/11 to f/16
- Shutter 1/160 sec.