Middle Creek WMA: Snow Geese and Frogs

A number of years ago now, we visited Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area, near Lancaster, Pennsylvania to see the Snow Geese Migration. We've always talked of going back, but it just hadn't worked out until last weekend. There weren't as many geese this time and there were only a few Tundra Swans, but we were also a little bit later in the season. Peak migration was a few weeks ago. In spite of that, we still had a great day and saw lots of birds:

 Snow Geese coming in for a landing

 Hanging out on shore

 Something spooked them and a whole bunch of them took off from the water at once. The sound of all of their wings beating was impressive.

 Graceful landing

 Another one coming in to land.

 All lined up

 Even though there were fewer geese than the last time we were there, there were still a lot of geese.

I was trying to take pictures of Tundra Swans that were really too far away to photograph, when this little Belted Kingfisher got my attention. It was a noisy little thing, but was happy to sit there and let me take pictures (click to enlarge).

 Two ducks feeding on the lake.

 Snow geese moving en masse

 We drove the road around the WMA, which took us by a little wet spot that was full of Wood Frogs and their egg masses. The frogs themselves were really vocal and love was in the air. You can hear a brief recording of their calls here (scroll down on the right)

 A couple of frogs on the egg masses.

 Snow geese on the water later in the day.

A juvenile Bald Eagle.