One morning last week I heard what sounded like a sizable flock of geese flying overhead, so I decided to head outside and take a look. I saw two large groups, both flying northwest over town. Connor and Rowan later told me they had seen the same flocks out by Whale Park while they were riding the bus. I’m not sure why they were heading in opposition to their seasonal migration direction, but my guess is they were looking for a suitable place to put down after flying through much of the night (a few days before, I had heard many flocks flying overhead through the night).
See below for a modified version of the first image with counts.
I got a little over 600 birds total in this flock
Yeah… waaaaay underestimated. By the way, Brooke probably saw a snowy owl on Harbor last weekend.
Makes me wonder – last night I heard many flocks flying over through the night and some sounded at least as numerous as these ones did – must be thousands of birds that fly over at the peak.
Maybe it will be another good year for Snowy Owls. Seems a little early, but I guess I don’t really know. Was it up high along the trail somewhere? (It seems to be a bumper crop of voles this year, so I imagine there’s plenty for them to eat right now.)