Colorado is not generally known for having a large populations of migrating birds. Most are scattered throughout the state as birds head north or south during their migration. However, southeastern Colorado does have a significant population of snow geese that overwinter here when their breeding grounds in Canada and the Dakotas freeze over. I headed down to Nee Noshe Reservoir near Lamar, CO to check out this spectacle. I was not disappointed. We saw thousands of snow geese on the reservoir. Unfortunately, the large flock had settled out in the middle of the lake so no birds were close to shore. Even with my Nikon 500 PF lens, I could not get closeups of any particular bird. Instead, I waited for the birds to fly up in groups and I took pictures of the masses of birds.
The coolest moment came when a bald eagle flew over the roosting birds, spooking them to fly up en masse. I have seen this phenomenon before but usually the eagle is far overhead. This time, she flew right over the birds. It looked like she was intentionally trying to set off the birds. Regardless of the bird’s intentions, it made for a noisy spectacle. Check my photos below to spot the eagle in the midst of the white birds.
