It's snowing ... geese

It's February and snow geese are collecting in large groups in the mid-Atlantic, at staging areas where hundreds and thousands of geese collect and coordinate their migration further northward. 

Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge had somewhere between 1500-2000 snow geese this last weekend.  They were divided into two smaller groups, and one of these was on the ice right beside the wildlife drive.    

 A healthy number of Canadas were around, too, of course.  Here are some fresh tracks.

Some other excitement was at Steel Pier in Atlantic City.  Large rafts of ducks were present just off-shore.  Hundreds upon hundreds of what were probably black scoters and long-tailed ducks.  

Closer in to shore, I found a common loon, and a female long-tailed duck.

And on the pier itself, more tracks.  Although nowhere near as fresh as the goose tracks at Forsythe.