AOG Synchronized Flying - Team Snow Goose

I decided to take a trip south today to Merrill Creek Reservoir where thousands of snow geese spend the winters.  When I arrived, there were what appeared to be 5,000 or so waaayyy out in the middle of the reservoir, barely visible even through binoculars.  But it was a nice day and there were lots of Canada Geese and ducks a bit closer so I settled in for some photos.  

And then...I heard it...the distinctive honk of snow geese   I looked up to see the first of what would be several thousand flying overhead towards the water.  I took hundreds of photos, all rapid fire as the skeins of geese passed over.  And I overheard a lot of commands being belted out about staying in formation, getting the heck out of the way, etc.  At one point, one of the Janitorial Staff got in the flight path and I feared for his life.  You can see his evasive moves HERE on Flickr.  

Seeing Team Snow Goose doing their formations encouraged the Canada Geese to take to the air, too.  However, they were a hot mess, flying in every direction, and were summarily disqualified from today's event.  They weren't happy.  Meanwhile, Team Snow Goose advanced to the finals.  One of the senior members of the team took one of the junior members on a well-deserved victory lap. (This was the only blue-phase snow goose I got a shot of today).  

Even though the reservoir is about an hour away, I may try to make a run down there again later this week.  I'm renting a Nikon D500 for the weekend so that might be a good place to test it out.  

Carry on with the wonderful AOG reporting, and don't forget that the tagging sequence is 2018AOG(date).  No dashes or underscores. 

And for Valentines Day, Hubs had to drive an hour to bring me an extra set of car keys after I locked mine in my car!  Thank God I had my phone in my pocket and camera over my shoulder - while the car keys gloated at me from the front dash of the car.  

Happy Valentine's day. 
Debbi

Other Stuff:  This image isn't cropped and was shot full frame with a 300 mm lens.  To improve the aesthetics of the shot, I cloned out two bits of wing and one goose that was in the lower right corner of the frame, making for a cleaner looking show.