Cackling Geese

 

January 22nd

          I wanted to acknowledge that our birding adventure is NOT eco-friendly.  We are using a lot of fossil fuel for self-indulgent, non-essential travel even though Electra (my Prius) gets 40-45mpg.  I have a certain amount of guilt about the number of miles we are driving, but our quest to find the birds seems to be winning out.  I honestly didn’t think we would do this much chasing. Our Big Year will definitely be a one year, one time endeavor.

          Back to the birds.  We left the house about 6:45am.  Destination - Athens, Ohio.  It’s been years since we’ve been to Ohio University but that’s where Cackling Geese have been regularly seen for the past three weeks.  We arrived about 3 ½ hours later and found at least three Cackling Geese fraternizing with the Canadians next to the Stadium and the Hocking River. 

          Cackling Geese are very similar to Canadian Geese, but are usually smaller, have a more rounded head, shorter neck, and small bill. The Cackling Geese found in our area are arctic breeders and a very small number winter in Ohio.

          Our next stop was Sharon Woods Metro Park near Westerville. We stopped at the feeders where we were able to see an Orange-crowned Warbler feeding on the suet.  This bird is very rare in January but has been hanging around for some time.

          Finally, we returned to Alum Creek State Park in Delaware to look for a White-winged Scoter which we did not find.  We did find the Eared Grebe that we missed on January 2nd and also a Northern Pintail.  The Reservoir is more frozen now with just a few patches of open water where the waterfowl are concentrated.  On a sad note at least for us, we saw some duck hunters shoot and wound two Goldeneye that were flopping around on the ice and couldn’t fly. (4 new species, total 111)

          Cackling Goose (scarce)                         Eared Grebe (scarce)

          Northern Pintail                                      Orange-crowned Warbler (very rare)   

 
Dawn this morning 
Cackling Goose
Orange-crowned Warbler
 


 

 

Comments

  1. AnnJanuary 23, 2022 at 6:27 AM

    You got some cuties yesterday! I love how the cackling geese look so delicate next to the taller and chunkier Canadians and the eared grebe is so cute, like a rubber ducky bouncing on the waves. Good day!

    ReplyDelete

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