{"id":43384,"date":"2016-12-07T05:56:34","date_gmt":"2016-12-07T12:56:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=43384"},"modified":"2025-05-19T04:03:33","modified_gmt":"2025-05-19T09:03:33","slug":"adult-snow-goose-on-willow-pond","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2016\/12\/07\/adult-snow-goose-on-willow-pond\/","title":{"rendered":"Adult Snow Goose on Willow Pond"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"LoneLone Snow Goose on Willow Pond – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/5000, ISO 640, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

I didn’t get to go out photographing early yesterday morning because I was trying to finish up a project and because I was nursing a very sore leg, my leg was sore because at 3 am I was awakened by a really bad Charley Horse in my right calf. Hours later my calf was still sore and it was painful to walk. It is still painful this morning.<\/p>\n

Later on in the day I went down to Willow Pond hoping to photograph some Redheads or Common Mergansers that have been hanging around but the Redheads were too far away and when the three Common Mergansers flew in they went to the far side of the pond too.<\/p>\n

There were several hundred Canada Geese on the pond and because I have seen reports of Cackling and Snow Geese in the area I scanned the pond with my lens and spotted a lone Snow Goose.<\/p>\n

I don’t get to see or photograph Snow Geese often so I took images of it even though it didn’t get as close as I would have liked it to come. I was just happy to see one.<\/p>\n

We do get a few Snow Geese on migration during the fall and winter but not nearly as many as in spring migration.<\/p>\n

One of the things I have on my “to do” list is to head to Delta, Utah during spring migration<\/span><\/a> and photograph the large flocks of Snow Geese that come through there then. I hope to make that happen this coming spring.<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

I came home and yesterday afternoon read some news about thousands of Snow Geese that died after nearly 10,000 of the geese landed on Berkeley Pit, a toxic open pit mine in Butte, Montana at the end of November.\u00a0 I had read about them landing there on a Facebook group I am a member of but only saw the article about them dying yesterday. I am disgusted that these open pits with toxic waters have not been cleaned up and that wildlife dies because of it. There is simply no excuse for this.<\/p>\n

Butte mine officials: Snow geese deaths number into the thousands<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Thousands of snow geese die after landing in toxic Montana mine pit<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Click here<\/span><\/a> to see more of my Snow Goose photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There were several hundred Canada Geese on the pond and because I have seen reports of Cackling and Snow Geese in the area I scanned the pond with my lens and spotted a lone Snow Goose.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":144940,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,709,1971,26],"tags":[4004,4513,713,4775,6915,530,1984,1972,8018,3996,2063,5541,373],"class_list":["post-43384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-salt-lake-county-utah","category-snow-geese","category-utah","tag-adult","tag-anser-caerulescens","tag-geese","tag-goose","tag-lone","tag-migration","tag-pond","tag-snow-goose","tag-urban","tag-water","tag-waterfowl","tag-willow-pond","tag-winter"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/snow-goose-willow-pond-mia-mcpherson-8832.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-bhK","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":44132,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2016\/12\/28\/canada-goose-landing-on-willow-pond-in-salt-lake-county\/","url_meta":{"origin":43384,"position":0},"title":"Canada Goose landing on Willow Pond in Salt Lake County","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"December 28, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"When I had the opportunity to photograph this Canada Goose landing on Willow Pond I took it and I caught the goose as its webbed feet hit the water so that it looked like the goose was water skiing.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Canada Goose landing on Willow Pond, Salt Lake County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/canada-goose-landing-mia-mcpherson-4382.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/canada-goose-landing-mia-mcpherson-4382.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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very common in most North America Canada Geese are often overlooked as subjects by some bird photographers.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Canada Goose and mate, Salt Lake County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/canada-geese-mia-mcpherson-3066.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/canada-geese-mia-mcpherson-3066.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/canada-geese-mia-mcpherson-3066.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/canada-geese-mia-mcpherson-3066.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 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Eve in decent light and that somehow to me this is more than \"just\" a goose, it is a Christmas Goose and who am I to look a gift goose in the bill?","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Christmas Eve Goose on a pond, Salt Lake County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/goose-christmas-eve-mia-mcpherson-7055.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/goose-christmas-eve-mia-mcpherson-7055.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/goose-christmas-eve-mia-mcpherson-7055.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, 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