Snow Geese at Sequoyah on Thanksgiving Morning

I spent Thanksgiving morning at Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge in Oklahoma. The Snow Geese had returned for the season and were gathering in large numbers in a field next to the auto tour road. It was a perfect way to start the holiday.

Snow Geese in Oklahoma: Wildlife Notes

Snow Geese migrate thousands of miles from their Arctic breeding grounds to spend winter in the southern United States. Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge is a key stopover and wintering site along the Central Flyway. These geese typically arrive in late fall and stay through winter, feeding on waste grain in agricultural fields and native vegetation in wetlands.

I also wrote about a similar experience during this same time last year in Sequoyah in The Spectacle of Snow Geese at Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge

The second photo shows an adult Blue-morph Snow Goose. This color variant has a white head and upper neck, but dark brownish-gray body plumage. Blue-morph and white-morph Snow Geese are the same species. They often flock together during migration and on wintering grounds. The blue morph is less common overall, but I see them regularly at Sequoyah mixed in with the larger white flocks.

Snow Geese are social birds. They form massive flocks that can number in the thousands. On Thanksgiving morning, the flock was active and vocal. Geese were landing, taking off, and calling constantly. The noise carried across the refuge. It’s one of the most impressive wildlife spectacles at Sequoyah each year.

Photography Notes

I used my Canon EOS R5 Mark II with the Canon RF 200-800mm F6.3-9 IS USM lens. All three images were shot at 800mm to pull the geese out of the cluttered background. Shooting at f/10 gave me enough depth of field to keep the birds sharp while still softening the autumn vegetation behind them.

Shutter speeds ran from 1/1000 to 1/3200 second. I used the faster speeds when birds were dropping in quickly or changing direction. The slower 1/1000 worked when they were gliding at a steady descent. ISO stayed between 1000 and 1600.

I shot from my pickup using a beanbag for support. The auto tour road at Sequoyah allows vehicles to stop along the route, which works well as a mobile blind. The geese were comfortable with stationary vehicles and continued their normal behavior. I kept the engine off and stayed inside the truck to avoid spooking the flock.

The warm autumn tones in the background came from dried grasses and distant treelines. This natural color palette contrasted nicely with the white and blue-gray plumage of the geese. I exposed for the birds and let the background fall slightly warm to emphasize the seasonal setting.

I also captured video of the flock. The combination of stills and video gave me a fuller record of the morning.