Another great day today in Orange County. A flock of 7-8,000 Snow Geese at the Pine Island Turf Nursery included at least 22 Blue Geese. The stars of the day though were (3)Three ROSS' GEESE!! One adult and one juvenile white birds were great finds, but later, Curt McDermott found a BLUE PHASE ROSS' GOOSE!! I missed it, as I had gone to the Golf Course to see the BARNACLE GOOSE which had returned after a several hour absence. Curts photos are great though. Many of us were able to get decent shots of the white Ross'. On the down side were Canada Geese and Greater White-fronted Geese. We were only able to find three GWFG today, down from 12 yesterday. Since many Canada Geese had flown out early, it is suspected that the GWFG were with them. As of 4pm, there were only about 6,000 CG around, so many more still had to come in. Another nice add was 4 Tundra Swans at the Golf Course and six at the Turf Nursery. Here's a list of what was seen, I don't think any of dozens of people who came went home disappointed.
Canada Geese 6,000+ Snow Geese 7,000+ Cackling Goose 1 Barnacle Goose 1 Greater White-fronted Goose 3 Ross' Goose 3 Tundra Swan 10 Rough-legged Hawk 4 Northern Harrier 2 Horned Lark 50 Blackbirds countless Northern Pintail 100+ American Wigeon 2 Green-winged Teal 30 I really expect that when the geese come in this evening the GWF's will return. Great birding with a lot of great folks. John Haas -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html 2) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html 3) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
