On one occasion, while I was driving from the town to the Site, I saw something unusual ahead and to the left side of the road. There were thousands of dots on the ground, too small to know what they were. I slowed the truck as I approached, eventually stopping to get a better look. I was really curious, because I had been up and down that road many times without seeing them. Looking out the window of the pickup, I could see not dots, but what now looked like sticks standing straight up and motionless. I quickly became even more interested! Stepping out of the truck for a better view, I carefully closed the door. Alas, that small sound of the door closing caused thousands of geese to rise into the air at the same time... creating a huge swarm that literally blackened the sky. The noise of thousands of wings flapping at the same time created a tremendous roaring that caught me by surprise! All at once I had been surrounded by this thunderous sound!
The spectacle of the geese at Cold Bay in 1970 was an amazing phenomenon. For good reason, the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge was (and probably still is) noted for its seasonal population of ducks and geese. It is said that the entire population of Pacific Flyway Black Brant gather at the Izembek refuge during their annual migration. On another day that autumn, I attempted to get a photo showing a representative multitude of those birds. However, the geese at Applegate Cove on the day of the photo were only a small example of the many thousands that stopped at Izembek.