I went on a long-ish walk down at the local wetlands and saw a good number of birds including a Snow Goose lifer. I was watching a few smallish flocks of Greater White-fronted Goose, who were all honking away and occasionally diving down to the ponds. At one point I noticed one of them looked white, like a large gull. It had occurred to me before this that there had been a few sightings of Snow Goose reported in the area, so I had sort of been on the lookout. As I was taking photos I saw that yes, the white one was a goose, and it had black tips on the wings. I was pretty certain that I was looking at a new lifer. I got some shots as it and the others were dramatically twisting and flipping upside down in the air, rapidly diving down to a pond. I walked over toward the pond area where they landed, hoping to get a photo, but didn't see them. Perhaps they had already taken off or landed farther away than I thought.

Another highlight on the walk was a pair of Black-bellied Plovers. I was hoping to get a shot of the black "armpits" and later found that I did, plus another unexpected shot of one flying with a mixed flock of ducks.

These photos are © 2024 Phil Thompson, all rights reserved.

My "birds in review" collages can be found here.