Spring Snow Goose Flocks

It's hard to really imagine a flock of snow geese coming into the decoys until you see it. The pictures below hardly do the flocks any justice. A common sight in the layout blinds is as follows: Off on the horizon a glint of white birds will catch your eye. At first you strain to see the specific flock of birds. That flock may have 50-100 birds flying along in a U-shaped formation. Then your eyes adjust to see the sky around the flock and you realize that they are simply one small part of the huge number of birds heading your way.

This small flock of snow geese are 70 strong. We killed birds in this group!

Spring snow goose flocks can number in the thousands but they are really broken up into smaller sub-groups in the big mess. It's actually the small flocks that give us the best shooting chances. Fewer eyes mean more likelihood of the birds coming in for a dusting! It's the big bald-eagle blue geese that the trophy-hunters are gunning for. The older they are, the more wary they become. It takes every bit of realism we can muster to call in the adult snows.

This wad of snow geese came sliding into the wind South Dakota style.