Snow Geese

About a year ago I was traveling from St Louis, MO to Northern Illinois and I encountered waves of birds flying south.  They were high up and I couldn’t quite see what they were but they had some flight patterns that indicated they might be geese.  Other birds fly in similar patterns on occasion so I wasn’t quite sure what I was seeing.

When I returned south following the same route in the late afternoon, I saw thousands of the birds on the ground in plowed farm fields.  They were large, white, and beautiful.  Snow geese.  I couldn’t believe the size flock I saw.  It had to be 10-15,000.  As far as I could see, the field was covered with the beautiful white birds.  I wished I could take a picture but didn’t have an adequate camera with me to get the distance that was involved.

This morning I had some things to take care of in Central Illinois and I wasn’t thinking about seeing anything special.  I was just happy the roads were dry and the temperature was above freezing.  It was pretty windy so the drive wasn’t especially easy but, all in all, it was an OK ride.

I looked along the river (Mississippi) to see if I could spot any eagles but didn’t see any.  About 5 miles past the river on the Illinois side, in the middle of a trailer park, there was a stand of oak trees.  Right in the middle of that trailer park, on the highest branch of the tallest oak, there sat a magnificent eagle.  He was a mature eagle, white head and tail and very large.  Made my day.

Half way between the river and Vandalia there is a farm with corn/beans and livestock.  Part of the livestock includes bison.  I don’t usually get to see the bison but today about a dozen were out grazing near the highway.  Wonderful.  I got an eagle and a dozen bison in one trip when I wasn’t even planning on seeing anything amazing.

Then, when I thought I had seen all I was going to get to see, I started seeing the massive flocks of snow geese.  Between Vandalia and Neoga I saw three massive flocks of over 1,000 in each flock.  They were flying formations and some were on the ground. 

What I thought was going to be a boring drive from St Louis to Illinois turned out to be something very special I will most likely not ever forget.