Photo Phriday: So This Happened

This isn't a place I was planning to stop at, or a sight I was planning to see. It was one of those completely magical travel moments that just kind of sneaks up on you and takes you by surprise. 

Here's what happened: 

So. I was driving down interstate 80 in Nebraska last week, on my way to see the sandhill crane migration (check back on Monday for my post about that!). I was almost at the Grand Island exit, when I glanced over at a small lake on the side of the highway. There was this dense white mass covering the center of the lake, which I quickly realized was actually a giant group of birds. There must have been thousands of them all floating together on this lake. At first I wondered if they were cranes, since I was approaching the edge of the territory they inhabit, but they were to small, and too white, to be cranes. Besides, at this time of day (late afternoon), the cranes should still be out in the fields foraging for food. 

I pulled off the highway to have a closer look. The lake was actually in a small park called Mormon Island State Park (and I don't know why they call it that because I didn't see any islands OR Mormons there, but whatever). I parked my car at the lakeshore and from here I could see that the birds were geese. Snow geese to be exact. Snow geese are migratory, but they start their migration earlier than the cranes, so I had never seen them before. In fact, I've never seen so many geese in one place before. There must have been several thousand of them. It was an incredible sight!