Photography courtesy of Lowell Washburn, all rights reserved.
I like to tell people that modern-day snow geese are the smartest birds in the sky. When under the direct supervision of experienced adults, even first year geese can be almost impossible to dupe; and bagging one can present hunters with an extreme challenge. There are still some occasional exceptions, however. One such episode occurred to me yesterday. A brisk wind was whipping up and the sun was peaking in and out of the clouds. Clear Lake has a couple of rapidly growing open spots, and I decided to go down to the shoreline and try “shooting some divers” with the camera. The birds were flying like crazy and I quickly became engrossed in my work. All of a sudden, I noticed ‘something different’ out of the corner of my eye. It was a juvenile snow goose, all alone and looking for company — any company. The goose abruptly plopped into the water and began paddling. I was hunkered down against the broken shoreline and the goose came to within ten paces before finally deciding that I wasn’t safe. Since a close up encounter with a dumber than a box of rocks snow goose was the very last thing I expected, I had left the shotgun at home. Too bad, this was undoubtedly the ‘dumbest’ snow goose I’ve seen so far this spring.
Tom Cope
Sue Wilkinson
Susan Judkins Josten
Rudi Roeslein
Elyssa McFarland
Mark Langgin
Adam Janke
Joe Henry
Kristin Ashenbrenner
Joe Wilkinson
Dr. Tammy Mildenstein
Sean McMahon