The Salton Sea is the winter home to a few thousand Snow Geese. I like to arrive on a weekday, to minimize the chance of another person spooking the wildlife. I try to get into position about forty minutes before sunrise. And then I watch the ritual of the Snow Geese and Sandhill Cranes changing location as the sun rises. To the west is pink, purple, and blue, to the east is orange and yellow. And everywhere, pods of geese and cranes are crisscrossing the sky. In this particular case, there were some clouds very low to the horizon that lit up when the sun peeked out above them. The cloud layer at the bottom almost looks like a golden river along which the geese are flying. I took many shots this morning with which I was happy, from single birds to large flocks, but the formation that this particular group adopted is the one that most speaks to me. January 2023.