The allure of tulip fields in bloom in the Skagit Valley can be so captivating at times that little else can seem to distract one’s attention.

Not even 5,000 snow geese.

Two Oak Harbor photographers discovered this and still laugh about it after a trip they took near Mount Vernon just after dawn Sunday to capture the tulips whose blooms started earlier than usual this spring.

So caught up in the tulips, Bill Ferry didn’t noticed another one of nature’s spectacular shows unfolding right next to him when a flock estimated between 5,000 and 7,000 snow geese lifted from a nearby field and flew right by and over him as he photographed the tulip fields.

His companion, Gray Giordan, turned and caught the moment with his camera, creating a lasting image the two friends and neighbors forever will be able to chuckle about.

“I could hear them. You can’t miss them,” Ferry said. “There’s this great sight so why am I looking at the flowers?”

The tulips are an annual attraction this time of year in Skagit Valley with a festival held in their honor during the month of April.

Thousands of snow geese and trumpeter swans also frequent the river deltas around North Puget Sound during the winter with the Skagit a popular landing spot.

“The noise was something out of a horror movie,” said Ferry, a retired trucker and professional photographer who recently joined the Garry Oak Gallery in Oak Harbor. “It was just all over and all around me. You couldn’t ignore the birds even though the flowers called you.”