Lesser Snow Goose

I made a third visit to the Sonny Bono Salton Sea NWR this year and got some more good pictures of snow geese I want to share. My prior posts on the lesser snow goose are here and here.  

The numbers I saw are substantially down from my first two visits. There were only very small groupings at Unit 1 and Unit 2. My favorite photos are of them flying, taken at Unit 1 (from my car). 

This is an immature goose flying.

I also found one in a canal, the first one I've seen on the water. When it saw me it hustled into the reeds. I got a photo of it later and it appears it was shot. I did hear hunters shooting shotguns nearby. 

The red on the side of the body looks like a wound. 

Last, a beautiful standing goose among a number of others feeding. 

At Unit 2 near the visitor center there were two small groups of geese at the far southwestern end of the large pasture. I focused on an intermediate morph and some immature birds that look like they will be blue morphs or intermediate morphs as well.