Images of 2011 Freezeout Lake snow geese migration

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Mass movement: Photographs from the 2011 Freezeout Lake snow geese migration

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Snow geese fly above the Rocky Mountain Front at Freezeout Lake on Saturday afternoon. The annual migration of snow geese headed north to the Canadian Arctic peaked on Saturday with more than 100,000 birds at the lake. Photo by Ben Pierce.

The first flocks of snow geese flying north to the Canadian Arctic typically arrive at Montana’s Freezeout Lake during the last two weeks of March. Depending on the weather and conditions at the lake, the number of geese present at any one time can easily exceed 100,000 birds. Tundra swans, Canada geese and a vast array of other waterfowl join the snow geese in a remarkable display of life.

The waterfowl migration was slow to develop at Freezeout Lake this year. Few areas of open water and persistent cold temperatures kept the birds away until last week. The migration peaked on Saturday. During the evening takeoff ten of thousands of snow geese took flight covering the sky from horizon to horizon, broad wings beating against the wind on their way north.

Tags: Canadian geese, Choteau, Fairfield, Freezeout Lake, Freezeout Lake Wildlife Managment Area, snow geese

This entry was posted by Ben Pierce on Thursday, March 31st, 2011 at 12:01 am and is filed under Birds. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

About The Author

Ben Pierce

Ben Pierce lives, works and plays in Bozeman, Montana. He blogs about the outdoors for Chronicle Outdoors. Catch him on the river, in the mountains or at bpierce@dailychronicle.com.

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Mass movement: Photographs from the 2011 Freezeout Lake snow geese migration

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