Early this afternoon I tried again for the BARNACLE GOOSE (BARG), after striking out on three previous attempts at St. Charles Cemetery and once at Belmont Lake over the past 6 days. I again tried St. Charles but found only the ~40 Canada Geese I found there yesterday afternoon. I decided it was time to think outside the box and expand my search grid a bit. So I checked Wellwood Cemetery, which is directly across Wellwood Avenue from St. Charles. I found no adequate habitat (large open fields) and consequently no geese. I next tried Pinelawn Cemetery along Long Island Avenue east of Wellwood Ave., where I've seen flocks of geese feeding many times in the past. No luck. I finally hit pay dirt a little farther east, at Colonial Springs Golf Club (due north of Wellwood Cemetery). There, among 450-500 Canada Geese, I found not only the BARG but also 1 GREATER WHITE-FONTED GOOSE ( GWFG) and at least 1 CACKLING GOOSE. I spent close to 2 hours walking the cart paths around a good chunk of the course (on which no one was playing—saw no people anywhere). In addition to the geese, other waterfowl seen on the main pond by the club house and a smaller one included 28 Mallards, 15 Ruddy Ducks, 12 Ring-necked Ducks and 3 Black Ducks. Passerine numbers were low and included only Blue Jay (1-2), White-breasted and Red-breasted nuthatches (2 and 1), Chickadee (3-4), Mockingbird (1), Starling, Song Sparrow (1), and Dark-eyed Junco (2-3). Also of note were 3 Red-tailed Hawks, 1 Cooper's Hawk, and a Red Fox. Photos of the BARG and GWFG viewable here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jgluth_brb/ -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
