In March of 2005 I was driving home in eastern South Dakota and saw a few thousand snow geese circling a small lake. I had my Nikon F100 and lenses 500mm f4 and 28-80mm f2.8 along. I saw a couple of state FishyGame biologists standing by their truck by the lake so I pulled alongside and got out. Looking through my Nikon binocculars I saw the small lake and surrounding grasslands were completely coated with geese. I asked the biologists how many were in this flock. They replied, "We think about 90,000 of them are here but a little further north there's........" At that point several gunshots rang out from hunters somewhere nearby. The lake erupted into a white blizzard. The sound from the geese all screaming at once instantly drowned out our voices even when we shouted as loudly as we could. The geese circled the lake like a huge cyclone before eventually settling back down. I took a few shots with my 28-80mm lens and headed on home. I've seen all this many times before.
Every spring birds by the millions return to the Arctic from points further south. The availability of high quality food on the Northern Plains (grain) has fueled a tremendous population explosion among these birds, particularly snow geese. When my kids were younger I would take them out to see the massive flocks, sometimes half a million strong. We'd crawl out to the edge of the semi-frozen lakes wearing our camo. When we had gone as far as we could go, we'd jump up and scream, "BOOGA BOOGA BOOGA!" as loudly as we could. Instantly tens of thousands if not over 100,000 birds would similtaneously leap into the air, all screaming at the tops of their lungs. My kids & I would then fall on our backs and watch the frantic cloud circling above us, in awe. It's truly something to behold. I'm sure my kids will never forget their "Adventures With Daddy." I have never regretted moving to South Dakota.
Birds tend to poop just as they are getting ready to take off, so I've rarely been hit. Not to say it's never happened, . Worst hit I ever took was the time I was in my kayak and nosing around in a commorant rookery. There were over 100 nests up in the dead trees, each full of parents and young birds. They all poop and the sound of it hitting the lake was constant. I was lining up a shot of a baby bird peeking over the side of a nest when I spooked an adult on a nearby limb. It cut a load loose and flew off. I got hit square in the back. Commorants are fish eaters, and their poop smells like rotten fish plus a lot of extra stink thrown in for good measure. And, there's a lot of it! I ended up having to wash off in the lake before I could get back into my vehicle. I buried the shirt at the scene. If I brought that home my wife's reaction would have been worse than the bird's!
That is amazing.