Cover Story

Notes from the Chairman

Leave nothing but footprints, take nothing but pictures, kill nothing but time.

Got Some “Secret” Photos Laying Around?

We all love to take great photos. But... It’s an uncomfortable fact that if all these great photos we take just remain on our hard drives, or in a shoe box somewhere, they are “secret photos” that really don’t exist!

I need your “secret photos” for the Sierra Club Story Photo Database. I’m certain you have a couple of great shots that will tell the visual story when published with a Sierra Club sponsored article or post. We have many articles and posts being created by Sierra Club Content creation volunteers that need your photos.

Why don’t you take a minute to review the spreadsheet I’ve provided on page 67 of this Focal Points Magazine. Use your imagination. Do you have any photos that might be used to tell the story of any of the categories listed? If so, please contact me to discuss.

If you send me your “secret photos” and they are used in a Sierra Club Publication, they are not “secret” any more. And, when published, you will receive credit and...... a little immortality.

Isn’t this why we take all these photos after all?

Cover Story

Story and Photos by Phil Witt

Snow Geese spectacular

Most of our top ten nature experience have been what one might expect—elephants in Botswana, wildlife close ups in the Galapagos, King Penguins by the thousands on South Georgia Island, jaguars in the Brazilian Pantanal, petting Gray Whales in Magdalena Bay. But one top ten experience happened just a few hours from home in nearby Pennsylvania. In March, my wife and I were going stir crazy, having been barely beyond the gates of our community in a year. We were both two weeks post-vaccination, so we decided to engage in high-risk behavior. We booked a room in a hotel in Ephrata, Pennsylvania, in the heart of the Pennsylvania Dutch country, so that we could stay overnight to visit Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area, just a few miles away.

Middle Creek WMA is a series of freshwater impoundments surrounded by fields in which corn and other crops are managed for wildfowl. The refuge is a stopover for Sandhill Cranes, ducks, and the star of the show—Snow Geese. In late February-early March every year tens of thousands of Snow Geese stop at Middle Creek on their way north from their East Coast wintering grounds to their nesting grounds in the northern US or Canada.

When we arrived at the refuge in the afternoon, the large cornfield next to the road was completely full with many thousands of Snow Geese, feeding in the field. Soon we were treated to a spectacle like none we had ever seen—thousands upon thousands of Snow Geese rising up en masse in a white storm, filling the sky with white and filling our ears with the enormous sound of beating wings and calling birds. It was, in a word, amazing.

The next morning we returned to the refuge for the sunrise. We walked to the water’s edge on a point of land extending out into the lake, where perhaps 500 other spectators and photographers had gathered. As the sun rose, the Snow Geese—now all sleeping on the lake overnight—lifted off the water, backlit by the sun, another beautiful sight.

We’re looking forward to the return of the geese next March.

8