Despite the cloudy, and even snowy, weather, I did get some good flight shots from Bosque del Apache this year…including two different panic sequences. This one happened on our very first round of the tour loop, the first afternoon we spent there. We drove up on the corn fields at the North end of the loop just in time to see the geese rise and swirl in the air for a good 10 minutes. They were far out in the fields, but with the reach of the Canon SX50HS, I could still fill the frame with geese.

I like the multiple layers of geese here. If you have seen this happen you know that the geese rise in mass, but soon sort themselves into something like a circular holding pattern…so you have geese passing any point in the sky in at least two different directions…one group in front and one behind. It can get more complex than that as individual geese jockey for leadership of the flock…and groups break away from the main body to follow…but the swirling motion predominates until they all serial down to settle once more in the fields.

Canon SX50HS in Sports Mode. About 1150mm equivalent field of view. ISO 800 @ 1/800th @ f6.5. Processed in Snapseed on the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014.