Flying as the snow geese take flight in Washington state

Cody Mooney, visiting from Loveland, Colo., tosses his 17-month-old daughter Willow in the air as snow geese take flight behind him Thursday in the Skagit Valley near La Conner, Wash. Bird watchers took advantage of a day without rain Thursday to gaze at some of the tens of thousands of snow geese that spend the winter near the mouth of the Skagit River there. The geese migrate from their mating grounds in Alaska and Siberia in late November to spend the winter in wetlands and farm fields of the Skagit Valley and other areas of northwestern Washington.