This is very strange.

[Ka-Dinh Oy]

My friend and I were just out in my parking lot when we heard a noise. We looked up and saw this flock of geese flying over.

The strange part was that these geese were big and they were glowing....yes...I said glowing!! At night you hear them and sometimes can make out the line of them but these geese were glowing. As I said they were huge to.

Is there a new species of geese? A nuclear reactor nearby ( SW Washington?) Did they escape from a lab? Are they Russian spies?

We were able to watch them fly away for a long time. When they got far away it was like looking at a nebula on Star Trek.

Anybody here have an explanation?

[unblock]

1. We're they headed toward the North Pole?

[Sinistrous]

2. Suggest you do a Google web search on "glowing geese"

Very instructive.

[NullTuples]

3. I've seen owls glow at night flying overhead

...but only when the sky is clear and there is some hidden light source on the ground shining upwards - it doesn't take much if it's really dark that night. If the air is clear enough the air itself stays dark but anything flying by gets lit up.

[Ka-Dinh Oy]

4. It's cloudy.

Been raining most of the day.

[NullTuples]

18. Well, that's not it then!

[rockfordfile]

5. Sounds like something you dreamed up

[padah513]

6. Art Bell?

[Meowmee]

7. According to this article it can happen with snow geese

If there is a strong enough light source causing their white underneath to reflect.

https://www.ctvnews.ca/sci-tech/glowing-geese-not-so-fast-scientists-debunk-video-of-illuminated-birds-1.3662830

[BlueMTexpat]

8. Thanks for

the link!

[Meowmee]

9. Yw 😀

[Ka-Dinh Oy]

10. Thanks for the article.

I looked that up and other articles.

From the little bit of research from those articles they turn out to be Snow Geese heading for Skagit Valley where they will raise their chick's in the Fall, Winter, and into the Spring.

The glowing is explained by their white bellies and light on the ground.

However, what is still odd is that the glow is supposed to be light from a city below or a very bright concentrated light. I live in a small town and we do not have a place with that bright of a light.

Maybe they do the same thing that those walk way lights you can get that lighten the walk way at night.

I don't know about that but hey, it was cool.

[Meowmee]

11. Maybe there was light reflecting on them from

The clouds. I hope you got a pic/ video 😀

[Ka-Dinh Oy]

12. We tried to get pictures but despite our phones supposedly being great cameras they didn't take.

The sad thing is they were not like little sparks. You could see the forms of each goose in their v pattern clearly.

[Meowmee]

13. Aww too bad, but at least you saw it!

[2naSalit]

14. I couldn't help but wonder...

In southern Montana, Butte to be exact, there is a superfund site called the Berkley pit that is highly toxic from mining waste. It is so toxic that there are active hazing measures in place year round to keep waterfowl from landing in the water in the pit because they will die. Many of the birds hazed are snow geese.

So I wonder if they were somehow exposed to something that actually glows like phosphorous or something.


But then, I have seen snow geese flying at night and I could see them even in a very rural area with no light pollution.

[Ka-Dinh Oy]

15. That is a possibility.

In that case, poor birds.

[GoCubsGo]

16. As someone who worked at a facility with multiple nuclear reactors, I can assure you

that nuclear reactors and radiation, do not cause animals to glow.

[Ka-Dinh Oy]

17. Good, that makes me happy to know.