Snow Goose!

Clear mild morning. When I heard that on the morning news I knew that there wouldn't be more snoozing on the alarm clock. I rolled out to get another visit to Stearns Lake in before work.

Much better! Now I don't have to rely on pictures that may or may not be used as evidence for the existence of bigfoot. My persistence paid off, after scanning about half of the lake for last night's potential hybrid I found him swimming. He headed right towards me and cut across the near side of the lake. I watched him and was able to pick out his distinct higher pitch call from the hundreds of honks coming from the Canadian Geese.

As I was looking through the viewfinder and listening to his vocalization I suddenly heard the apx. 3000 geese begin to warning honk in unison. I looked up to see the elusive Bald Eagle making a pass towards me across the lake. Nice.

Now when each person I see at that lake asks the obligatory, "Have you seen the Bald Eagle?" I can answer Yes, and then point out the more uncommon Snow Goose to them. Of course I turned my attention back to the Snow Goose and took a few more pictures as he swam around.

I continued my walk to the farmland to the south, and got a good shot of another juvenile Red-tailed Hawk above me in a cottonwood.

After taking too much time near the hawk I was hurrying back to my car, but had to stop for a few frames of a light toned Coyote before I left.

2009 Count: 46

Lifetime: 84