I pulled onto a gravel road just before 7 a.m., making my way to the shore of one of Freezout Lake’s many nearby ponds. Just south of Choteau, the area sits among north central Montana’s rolling hills and Great Plains. 

Just as the first glimpse of sunlight seeped through a cloudy sky, and just as I stepped out of my car, a deep, loud echo drumming noise took me off guard. I looked to the right and saw what appeared to be a mist of white lift off the lake. 

It moved right, it moved left, dancing through the sky with ease and coordination.  

Thousands of snow geese were making their way from the lake to the Arctic, an annual event that draws visitors and bird watchers from near and far.  

Five friends and I made our way a bit closer to the action. The geese began making their way to the plains, flying above us in perfect order. It seemed like it could never end.  

We sat for an hour, watching the birds soar through the sky in synchronicity, before leaving the lake until later in the morning when we returned to watch again. 

LOCATED JUST north of Fairfield on the eastern edge of the Rocky Mountain Front, the Freezout Lake Wildlife Management Area at 12,000 acres has become a hot spot for waterfowl hunting and bird watching. 

The area is a “waterfowler’s heaven and a birdwatcher’s delight,” according to Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks.  

Approximately 230 species of birds have been documented in the area, including shorebirds, raptors and other non-game birds, but waterfowl are what the area is known for. 

The reason I went to Choteau, and one of the biggest highlights Freezout Lake has to offer, is the spring waterfowl migration, when tens of thousands of birds stop to feed in surrounding fields enroute to their Arctic nesting grounds after spending the winter in California. Snow geese numbers usually peak at the end of March, with other migrating birds traveling through both before and after.  

The geese, while at Freezout Lake, feed twice a day in the surrounding fields. They leave the lake at sunrise and return in the late morning to rest until dinner time. The routine is repeated daily, and an average goose spends four days at Freezout Lake, the state agency says.  

“It's just the magnificence of all these birds being there at the same place,” said Bob Lee with the Flathead Audubon Society. "They’re just another interesting life form in this world.” 

Lee leads a trip to Freezout Lake for the Flathead Audubon every year. The number of birds, weather and visibility varies each year, Lee said, reminiscing on a year where his group stood watching during a blizzard.  

This year, Lee and three other birders traveled to Freezout Lake on a Sunday night to watch the birds Monday morning. Of course it was spectacular, Lee said, but he observed a lower number of birds than usual.  

“This is a pretty warm winter, so I think maybe the geese are a little more strung out in their migration,” Lee said. “They’re not pushing as hard, but otherwise I think it was a pretty good year. We saw plenty of geese flying in as we were leaving on Monday.”    

Brent Lonner, a wildlife biologist at Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, said that water levels at Freezout Lake have been lower this year, leading to a different trend in the bird’s migration.  

He specifically sited swans, saying that many are choosing to skip over Freezout Lake for better conditions in Southern Canada.  

“We’ve had a slow migration this year,” Lonner said. “We’ve been slow, had below average numbers throughout this entire migration. But now we’re starting to build.”  

The average amount of geese on a peak migration day is around 50,000 birds on the lake.  

Lonner recalled one spring around 20 years ago, when approximately 300,000 birds were on the lake in one day. He attributed the phenomenon to bad weather father north, keeping the birds at Freezout.  

Five years ago, in similar circumstances, the lake pushed to 200,000 birds.  

As of Thursday, that number peaked at 40,000, according to Lonner, who expects the end of March to maintain good numbers after a slow start. 

“What I’m telling folks if you think of making a trip out to Freezout, the sooner the better,” he said. 

Dan Casey led the trip to Freezout for the Flathead Audubon from the 1980s to 2015. He was there to witness the flock of 300,000, which Casey says may have actually been as large as half a million birds.  

“It’s one thing to see individual birds, but to see the entirety of these flocks in action is incredible,” Casey said. “Even in a low year, that’s still more birds than most people see in a flock.” 

An estimated 30,500 geese were at the lake the morning of March 22, when I visited. To the naked eye, it was nearly impossible to attempt to count the birds as they sailed throughout the area, but it was the most birds I have ever seen at once. 

While we were in Choteau, we were able to attend the Wild Wings Festival, an event put on to celebrate the peak of the migration. With numerous educational booths and raffle options, people from across the state gathered to learn more about the famous geese and visit the famous lake.  

“It's just a happy time for a lot of people, it kind of symbolizes the fact that spring is on the way,” Casey said, reflecting on his decades of watching the migration. “Waterfowl are one of the first things that happen in the spring and the spectacle of the snow geese is moving." 

As Mary, the kind Airbnb owner who shared her house with us the night prior, said, we were lucky enough to watch “the magic flight.” 

Reporter Kate Heston may be reached at 758-4459 or [email protected]. 

    Snow geese fly above Freezout Lake in Choteau, Montana during their yearly migration north. (Kate Heston/Daily Inter Lake)
  

  

    Tundra swans glide across the skies at dusk. (Chris Peterson/Hungry Horse News)
  

    Tundra swans and ducks gather in one of the ponds with Priest Butte in the background. (Chris Peterson/Hungry Horse News)
  

    Tundra swans, snow geese and a variety of ducks gather in one of the ponds at the Freezout Wildlife Management Area. (Chris Peterson/Hungry Horse News)
  

    Snow geese take off from a pond in the gray light of dawn at Freezout Lake. (Chris Peterson/Hungry Horse News)
  

    A flock of snow geese glides in at dusk with the Rocky Mountain Front in the background at Freezout Lake. (Chris Peterson/Hungry Horse News)