The snow geese of Freezout Lake

I took this photo at Freezout Lake near Fairfield in south central Montana. Some snowflakes must have gotten on the lens and diffracted the light to achieve an almost psychedelic stained-microscope-slide look. In the background, hundreds upon thousands of snow geese fly overhead, stopping to rest from their 1,000 mile journey from California at the lake before their spring migration north to nesting grounds in Canada. As many as 300,000 snow geese and 10,000 tundra swans will rest their weary wings at this lake during the winter and early spring, making it the most spectacular natural phenomenon you will ever have the privilege to witness. But dress warm – on your way over to the lake, you must cross Rogers Pass, the location of the coldest temperature ever recorded in the US outside of Alaska. You might want to shiver a few times for this…wait for it………70 degrees below zero in 1954! Brrrrrrrrrr!!!!