Snow Geese

Snow Geese (Chen caerulescens)

I just returned from a (great!) vacation in Quebec City. At this time of year the Snow Geese are passing through that area from their winter home in the U.S. en route to their summer nesting grounds in the Arctic. This image, captured at Cap Tourmente National Wildlife Area (37 miles east of Quebec City), shows two dark morph birds landing amongst their more common white relatives. There were very large numbers of these birds in the fields, all muddying their faces in search of food. They need to be fat when they arrive in the Arctic because there likely won't be much food for them there for the first couple of weeks. Being amongst so many large birds was really quite an experience.

1D Mark IV, 100-400mm f/4.5-f/5.6, hand held: ISO 400, 1/1000 s, f/13, 0 EV, 10.2 MP after cropping (64% of the 16 MP of the 1D Mark IV), slight NR, exposure adjustment, sharpening.