Goose. Goose. Snow Goose.

Up early this morning for a work day. Since it was warm, 40s, and there was no scraping to be done on the car windows I had plenty of time to gas up the car on the way to work. Traffic was non-existent, and my back way to work takes me past a reservoir as well. I stopped by as I was early for my expected slow day. The sunrise was spectacular, and several thousand geese were honking as I arrived.
I expected that the sun would peak out and trigger a massive take-off by the geese, but the clouds that had provided the backdrop for the sunrise prevented direct sunlight from ever reaching the lake.
So instead of getting an overwhelming and inspirational sight, I had a chance to do some scanning of the throngs. In the midst of the groups I picked out a white head. My initial thought of gull was, clearly wrong, so I took a number of shots to help me determine if it was an odd plumage, hybrid, or something else.

Something else indeed. From my investigations this appears to be a Dark Plumage, or "Blue" Snow Goose. First life-list tick of 2009!

A nice surprise for a quick morning stop. The area turned up a good bit of variety including a group of Tree Sparrows near the parking lot. Have a great weekend!

2009 Count: 26

Lifetime: 81