Thousands of Snow Geese filled the ponds at Gray Lodge, occasionally exploding into the air with a cacophony of sound, both wingbeats and squawks. It was a pretty big gaggle of geese. I got a chuckle out of this image because of the one in the center looking behind it, the opposite direction all the other geese were facing— okay, maybe one other is doing it too. It struck me that maybe he’s the lookout to make sure nothing is sneaking up behind the group. It was usually a predator that set them off. There were plenty of predators there, mostly raptors like Bald Eagles, Northern Harriers, Red-tailed Hawks, Red-shouldered Hawks, Cooper’s Hawks, and I’m certain I saw a Sharp-shinned Hawk disappear into the shrubs as we stood photographing the Green Heron. When I’ve seen Snow Geese at Bosque del Apache, they didn’t have the rust staining on their head and breast feathers. I have read that it is caused by the iron-rich soils where they feed here that stain their white feathers with iron-oxide.