The Arrival of Geese (and Other Feathered Friends)

On Sunday I drove by that field I told you about a few weeks ago along East End Road that we see 5-13 moose in and there were about 20 geese.  Thirty minutes later I drove by again and there were 100 geese.  Yesterday someone was on the phone when they drove by that field and said there were 500 geese in that field!  And when my husband went by last night he said the geese and the moose were sharing the space.  I'm kind of surprised they put up with the noise!  Since this flock of geese is the talk of the town, thought I'd share them with you.  Here's my video of them from the car as I drove to my workout this morning.  This was taken at 6:20 a.m. by the way--nice and light out (and it was cloudy).  I'm not a birder, so all I can tell you is that they are not Canadian Geese.

Speaking of geese, I heard there were 3 different kinds of geese out on the spit yesterday too, which according to the source, in all the years they've lived in Homer they've never seen so many so they were happy the numbers are rebounding.

The sandhill cranes are flocking in too, with up to 100 seen in one field by Wasabi's the other day, and they swoop over our yard regularly.  (You'll get a picture or video of them when I happen by them with my camera, which will be sooner or later as a group of them walk up our road regularly.).  Each morning when I wake up I am greeted by tweets and twitters of birds I haven't heard since last fall. 

The Migration Festival is coming up in a couple weeks:  a week-long celebration of all the thousands of birds that migrate through Homer.  People come to it from all over the world and we see all the fancy filming and sound capture equipment out on the spit (nothing at all like my low-tech video above!).  Even for a non-birder, it is exciting to be on a major migration route.

I am thinking spring is here.  Hip-hip-hooray!