On Saturday, I received a report that the floodplain along Cty Rd #9, 5 minutes north of St. Isidore, had no Snow Geese. The birds had relocated to the Cobb's Lake Creek floodplain east of Bourget, about 20 minutes west. Movement between the two sites can be expected to occur until both areas dry up in a couple of weeks or more.
On Sunday, I checked the Winchester area and had a large number of Snow Geese for that area, more than expected. There were about 20-23,000. All of the birds were sitting or standing on the grassy berms around the sewage ponds northeast of town (on Cty Rd #3) and the dairy pond in town (view from Alexander Street). As expected, Winchester is currently where the concentration of Lesser Snow Geese can be found. Some will eventually move to other sites further northeast. These birds show up in flocks a couple of weeks after the main flock of Greaters first appear and end up mixed in with the Greaters although there is a tendency for them to stick together when in large numbers. The large flock of geese at Cobb's Lake would have a small number of Lessers. Today I saw more Lessers than I have ever had. Determining which were Greater and Lesser was difficult because many birds were sitting down and were spread across the numerous pond areas. There could easily have been 5,000+, maybe much more than that. The problem was determining which were Greater white morphs vs Lesser when at rest at a distance. The blues were easy because virtually all of them were Lessers and this was the largest number I have seen in the region although others have had good numbers in the past as well. There were likely well over 1,000 blue morphs, possibly closer to 1,300, with some groupings of dark birds looking at a distance to at first be Canadas. There were no Canadas at all. The percentage of blue to white morphs in Lessers we have seen for birds moving to Quebec is far higher than for Greaters – roughly 1/3 or better, while in the last few years, in very large flocks of Greaters (50-80,000), blue morphs have been barely worth talking about – well below 1%. These birds were resting near 1:00 pm so I can't say what their routine is like for feeding. They did some feeding on the grass but may move to area cornfields as well. I had one Ross's with the Lessers and was only able to identify it because it wasn't too far out. There could have been a few more. Briuan Morin -- Ontbirds and Birdnews are moderated email Listservs provided by the Ontario Field Ornithologists (OFO) as a service to all birders in Ontario. Birdnews is reserved for announcements, location summaries, first of year reports, etc. To post a message on Birdnews, send an email to: [email protected]. If you have any questions or concerns, contact the Birdnews Moderators by email at [email protected]. Please review posting rules and guidelines at http://ofo.ca/site/content/listserv-guidelines During the COVID-19 pandemic, all Ontario birders should be taking extra precautions and following local, provincial, and federal regulations regarding physical distancing and non-essential travel. To find out more about OFO, please visit our website at ofo.ca or Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/OntarioFieldOrnithologists.
