Snow Geese Festival

On March 1, 2002, Christine and I journeyed to Delta, Utah, for the annual snow geese festival.  This is a time for visitors from anywhere and everywhere to view and enjoy the many thousands of snow geese that stop on the Gunnison Bend Reservoir, a few miles west of town, as they migrate northward for the summer.  It is the first time that I had viewed this spectacle and I was quite amazed at how beautiful and inspiring it was.   We stayed in Delta that night and the next day we visited the reservoir where I took the following pictures:

on the lake        coming in       over head     when they take off      sometimes they fill the sky

Quick Facts About Snow Geese 

Weight: 6 lbs (male) 5.5 lbs (female)
Wing Span: 35 inches 
Average speed: 50 miles per hour 
Migration Distance: 3,000 miles at 2,952 ft altitude 
Color: Two color phases: in the "blue" phase, the head and upper neck are pure white, with grayish-brown to black body and in the "snow" phase they are all white with black wing tips  Voice: A high-pitched, barking "bow-wow!" or "hownk-hownk!"
Diet: shoots and roots, grass, bulbs, insects, berries, grains, aquatic plants and invertebrates