Early Arrivals

Greater White-fronted Geese -- Merced National Wildlife Refuge, CA
Canon EOS Rebel T5i, EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM, f/7.1, 1/400s, ISO: 320

I like how these five geese look like they're just out for a little stroll and a chat.  I wonder what geese talk about.  How was the flight, maybe?

Coming in for a Landing

Greater White-fronted Goose -- Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge, CA
Canon EOS Rebel T5i, EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS II, 1/2000s, f/5.6, ISO: 500

I like this picture for a couple of reasons.  First, these geese look a little awkward descending for a landing, which I find amusing.  Most birds know how to make landing effortless.  Not so with geese, though, they sometimes look like they've never actually done it before.  Second, all the birds in the background give an indication to how crowded this refuge can get.  In fact, anyone who has been to the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge in the winter can vouch for the fact that the population in the photo is actually sparse.  This photo was taken in the middle of the day.  I think a good percentage of the birds were out foraging for food.

To be fair, this was a tricky landing these geese were making.  For whatever reason they decided to plop themselves right down into a group of snow geese.  I think I'd have been annoyed if I was one of the geese on the ground given all the open water available to the incoming geese.  Silly birds.

Greater White-fronted Goose

Greater White-fronted Goose -- Martin Luther King, Jr. Regional Shoreline, Oakland, CA
Canon EOS Rebel T5i, 1/250s, f/6.3, ISO: 200

I don't consider myself a birder, although I do some things that a birder would do and I feel like I understand what they enjoy about birding.  I have an account on eBird, for instance.  I don't use my real name there and I mostly track birds I've photographed rather than birds I've seen or heard.  My life list is at 187 birds, which I think is pretty good considering the list goes back less that two years, but to put it in perspective the top eBird birder for this year is at 662.  Last year Neil Hayward got 740 birds on eBird.  He wrote a very entertaining blog about the experience, and on the blog he notes seeing 747 species and three provisionals, which is the ABA single year record.  He was at 187 somewhere in the middle of January of that year.

While I enjoy seeing a new bird, I don't seek them out.  A lot of my favorite species to photograph are quite common.  Greater white-fronted geese, for instance, are easily seen by the thousands at many of the Central Valley wildlife refuges.  Occasionally they'll wander a little too far West and will find themselves having to spend the night with the gaggle of Canada geese that are often found on the lawn near Arrowhead Marsh.  I've taken my best photos of these geese at the park.