This morning, while birding the Chestertown Wastewater Treatment Plant 
in Kent County with my brother Mike, one of the largest flocks of birds 
I've ever seen flew overhead. I spotted the beginning of the flock over 
a distant treeline, coming from the direction of the Chester River. It 
looked like a few thousand geese, which isn't exceptional and was too 
distant to sort through anyway, so we returned to searching for 
waterfowl at the treatment plant. Ten minutes later, we noticed that the 
geese were still appearing over the treeline. Not long after, the 
increasingly cacophonous clatter of calling Snow Geese was surrounding 
us. We thought the sound was maybe emanating from a nearby cornfield and 
it was a flock getting ready to take off, but soon discovered it was 
actually coming from above our heads. When we looked up, we found the 
sky absolutely covered in Snow Geese.

Using Google Earth's measuring tool, I was able to determine that the 
flock was no narrower than one and a quarter miles. Despite its 
impressive width, the flock took nearly twenty minutes to pass over - 
much longer to get out of sight. Estimation wasn't easy, but my 
CONSERVATIVE total was 75,000 birds!

Rob Ostrowski
Crofton, MD


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