Wow again! Today while making a quick round of the Olentangy River adjacent
to the Ohio Wesleyan campus here in Delaware, I stopped by Mingo Park, just
northeast of the campus. This was at 4pm.
See here- http://tinyurl.com/y8oz7zm
Immediately I noticed an extremely small goose amongst a flock of about 60
Canadas, only about 50 yards away on the other shore. I held my binoculars
up and saw there were 4 more! Skeptical of my identification at this point
(only because 5 Cackling Geese is hard to believe!), I called Jack Stenger
and Dr. Jed Burtt, who quickly arrived on the scene. I took notes and
sketches on the bird while they were driving over. After viewing the birds
for quite some time, we determined that these birds really were puny enough
and proportioned correctly to be Cackling Geese. Here are some things I
jotted down about the birds:
-little pushed-in bill, extremely small and thick at the base
-no neck, the bird appeared to have just a head on the body when swimming
-when swimming, the top of the head was about the height of the top of the
back
-only 10-20% larger than Mallards in the area
-very pale breast (indicating Richardsonšs Cackling Goose)
-cute, big-eyed
However, herešs the catch. I patiently waited, without disturbing the geese,
until dark. About 20 minutes before sunset, the entire flock took flight and
headed south. I tracked them as best as I could, but it seemed they
continued. Will they roost in a field tonight and return tomorrow? Or simply
continue south? Išll post an update tomorrow if no one else searches for
these cute little guys.
Good birding,
Sean
---
Sean Williams, '11
Undergraduate of Ornithology of Dr. Jed Burtt
Ohio Wesleyan University
HWCC 724
Delaware, OH 43015
617-470-4094
______________________________________________________________________
Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society.
Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list.
Additional discussions can be found in our forums, at www.ohiobirds.org/forum/.
You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at:
http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS
Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]
|
