LAKE PRESTON, S.D.
Several thousand squawking snow geese swirled over the field like a huge white whirlpool, then landed and fed on the remnants of last fall's corn harvest.
More white geese, their black-tipped wings locked, spiraled down from an azure sky to join them. Three of us, clad in camouflage and cradling shotguns, hunkered on the lip of a grassy ravine not 30 yards away and watched the spectacle with awe.
When dozens of birds glided even closer, we jumped up and fired. The startled flock instantly lifted off in one great barking mass and headed skyward over the frozen South Dakota prairie.
"Wow, that alone was worth the trip," said Don Sauter, 54, of Arlington, Minn.
Sauter's son, Ryan, who had approached the flock from the east, joined us. We collected nine geese -- among 21 we shot over two days last weekend in the special spring light goose hunt. Not bad, considering the migration in South Dakota is just beginning.
However, just witnessing the spring waterfowl migration is inspiring. The countryside was teeming with wildlife.
We saw tens of thousands of snow geese, white-fronted geese, Canada geese, mallards -- even black clouds of red-winged blackbirds that stretched across the horizon.