Eleven of us poked around the mostly-frozen reservoirs, woods, and
feeders in public areas with Creeky names--Caesar, Deer, and Darby--as
well as the Melvin quarry pits yesterday. We had sixty mostly
unremarkable mid-winter species during twelve hours of birding in six
counties, ending with some short-eared owls at the Darby grasslands
beginning at 5:33 pm (four minutes after sunset on a misty overcast
day); my guess is you'll just freeze your tootsies standing around much
before then to see this now-rare Franklin County species given the
current sunset schedule. Oh yeah, the new bison enclosure and the vast
expanse of wetland-to-come look fantastic.
        Of interest were 27 diurnal raptors of 9 species, missing among the
commoner winter ones only peregrine falcons. At Melvin's ever-changing
throngs we had XXXX Canada geese, 4-5 cackling geese, one greater
white-fronted goose, and thirty-some snow geese, including maybe half
"blues." The latter used to be by far the commoner form of snow geese in
Ohio (ten thousand were seen over Columbus in one day in 1939, when Lou
Campbell estimated the white form of the lesser Canada goose constituted
only 7.5% of the migrants through Ohio), but the ratio seems very
different today. Snow geese of either color remain pretty rare in
mid-winter, especially down-state. Does anyone know if the Melvin quarry
is kept so largely free of ice because it's spring-fed, or is it just a
goose-powered thaw?
        Anyway, Melvin is worth visiting to test your powers of
observation--even under demanding conditions (it's cold, and every so
often all the birds will dread and rearrange themselves or leave
entirely)--as you look for the odd birds in the acres of Canada geese.
Linda picked out the white-fronted in the throng, even though it was
snoozing with its distinctive soft parts entirely hidden, and Paul found
some cacklers out in traffic that looked like a high-school corridor at
class change. There was one alluring juvenile 'blue' goose, with a white
eyering and bill base, but otherwise no white on the head; I see this
one very seldom in Ohio, especially at this time of year, and wonder why.
        One more thing. Scanning large Canada goose flocks in winter will
quickly disabuse the observer of the perception that mostly we have two
sizes of this group--Canadas and cackling geese. Many observers know we
get good migrant numbers of a James Bay form, B. canadensis interior,
that are noticeably smaller and slenderer than the 'giant' Canadas B. c.
maxima, but studying vast herds like Melvin's demonstrates there are
decent numbers of still smaller geese. These look smaller than B. c.
interior, but by no means as small as 'real' cackling geese, which--as I
understand it--are uniformly little larger than mallards and
conspicuously show an obviously daintier bill and forehead profile.
There is a strong parallel with corresponding species pairs like snow
vs. Ross's geese and greater vs. lesser white-fronted geese. If you have
a copy of the Fall 2007 Ohio Cardinal, look at the photos of specimens
on page 64. Too many smaller Branta geese are being called "cacklers" in
my opinion, and we have a lot to learn about other forms, or at least
sizes, in Ohio.
Bill Whan
Columbus

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