Birds of Winter

Each winter, eastern North Carolina is home to migrating waterfowl that have traveled from as far as northern Canada and Alaska. There are a few locations where large numbers of these birds gather, sometimes in the 10o's of thousands. That seems like an almost unreal number, so we decided to look for ourselves.

We arrived at the Pungo Unit (part of the Pocosin lakes wildlife refuge) just as the sun was rising. Immediately we noticed small flocks of birds joining a fairly large group already enjoying their breakfast in the field. That while stuff in the background isn't cotton, it's birds. As we got a little closer, we could easily identify these birds as snow geese. They were very active for it being so early in the morning. Here a group is coming in for a landing to join the others.
They have an almost fluid like movement. One or two birds start the move and they are followed by hundreds of others until there is a wave of honking geese in the sky. They weave and circle a few times, then land again and continue their breakfast.
Here a flock was coming in to a new area of the field.
More and more make their way in.
They circled directly over us for a while and man are they loud.
It is hard to believe that many birds can be in one place at the same time but they do it every year.
Birds, as far as the eye can see and these are only the Snow Geese. The Tundra Swans were on the lake and the numbers are about the same. The birds of winter are truly one of nature's wonders.