Snow geese also use the Rio Grande Valley as a flyway, alongside their distant cousins the sandhill cranes. They can often (though not always) be found in the same locations as the cranes themselves.
Every once in a while, due to absolutely nothing that I’m capable of identifying, all of the snow geese in a field suddenly rise up into the air as a single group. They squawk even more loudly than usual, fly around in a few large circles, then settle back down onto the field. This behavior is often called a flyover.
State and federal agencies create ponds in the Rio Grande Valley each winter by deliberately flooding fields so the birds have a wide variety of overnight options. Sure enough, cranes and snow geese begin streaming into those ponds, and other areas along the Rio Grande, starting in the late afternoon.1 Some of us call that process a fly-in.2
Fly-ins are nothing less than mesmerizing to me. The sounds, even more than the sights, draw me in completely. Cranes make some of the most beautiful music I’ve ever heard. I’ve been trying to video fly-ins for years now and finally got a decent recording last month. A small part of it is below.
I walked away from my camera while the video was recording so my own sounds wouldn’t be included. The view in the opposite direction was so pretty that I decided to take some still photos too.3 You can see a small portion of the avian rush hour in the photo below, along with a tiny moon behind the trees.
On a related note …
I’ve been experimenting with various image-editing apps recently. The experiment below started with the photo above.
I’d like to begin sharing my experiments with folks. Two of the possibilities I’m considering are: 1) occasionally adding them to Everyday Magic emails (just like this) or 2) starting a second email list to send out only my experiments to the folks who want to see them. If you have a preference, please let me know what it is.
It often looks like an airborne rush hour.
Cranes and geese also overnight on the Rio Grande itself.
Yes, I had two different cameras with me — one for video and one for stills.
Nature is so amazing. Thanks for bringing it closer to me.
Please share your experiments with this subscriber. Fabulous pics and sound recording - THANKS!