... A murmuration of another sort...

As planned, hubs and I set off for Wallkill River NWR this morning. The GPS led us totally astray so we had to resort to ... gasp ... actual MAPS. Eventually we got to the trail that I wanted to walk - a 2.5 mile loop around a marshy area that is frequented by waterfowl. Well, we got to the tiny little dirt parking lot and there wasn't a single parking spot left ... we arrived on the heels of a big, and very serious, group of birders, all armed with digiscopes that made my 300 mm zoom look downright pathetic. I tried to listen in on their conversations (hard with only one ear) so that I could figure out what the hell they were looking at. Apparently a ring-necked pheasant and a bunch of ducks I couldn't see. The swans that were swimming in plain sight were of no interest to the digiscope crowd.

Eventually the birders all got in their cars and left (there were about 30 of 'em) and we set out to walk the trail. It was perfect out today (sorry, JillyMint!) so we enjoyed the walk. Only ran into 3 other people in the entire 2.5 miles. Saw lots of ducks but too far away to id any of them. And then there were the geese... the last time I saw this many geese was when I lived on the Aleutian Islands in Alaska when I was a kid! I took a bunch of pictures, trying to capture the sheer size and complete chaos of the flock. They were flying every which-way, no attempt at a formation, just a complete mess. At one point, I also saw a smallish flock of starlings (less than 50) and I am pretty sure that these geese were trying to compete in terms of the undulating flight. It was crazy. Just glad we weren't in poop-range. I might not have lived to type the tale...

I posted some other pictures from the Refuge HERE on Flickr if you'd care to have a look. I will probably enter at least one of the photos of the birders in the GBBC photo contest.

I'll also be entering this shot of a house finch taken today at the Bistro. And speaking of the Bistro ... Seymour was at it bright and early today, chowing down on my homemade peanut butter suet. Cheeky little devil.

Tomorrow is a holiday here in the US, so hubs and I will be running some errands and I will also be counting birds for the final day of the GBBC! Two checklists submitted today...