Snow Geese!

We were at my sister's house, close to the dyke in Steveston, looking out her front windows watching the rain fall, when the noise began. Birds of North America Online refers to it as "the distant sound of baying hounds". Soon the sky filled with hundreds and hundreds of snow geese. We were awestruck. The geese circled several times before landing across the road in fallow agricultural fields.

Snow Geese. Photo by James Ritchie.

After watching the geese through binoculars until we thought we were sated with the experience, we decided to brave the elements and walk to the coffee shop down the road for lunch. Half way there, the snow geese lifted from the fields. We stood in the rain, looking up, mesmerized by the hundreds (or more - some flocks reach one thousand) of gorgeous white geese with black wing tips circling overhead, just above us. Wow.

It's possible that these geese, having migrated from their arctic breeding grounds, are wintering in the Fraser Valley. A small group do, while others head much farther south. But wherever they are going, I am thrilled they happened to stop here while we were visiting. It was a sight I will never forget.