MA - Christmas Ross's Goose 12/24

Acting on a suspicion that our local Canada Geese would be spending most of the day out in the fields feeding on corn stubble, I decided to try the Turner's Falls power canal before I did anything else this morning. Initially it looked quite gloomy with just a small group of Canadas near the main entrance and nothing white among them. But farther down the canal, quite close to the entrance to the USGS Fish Lab, a nice raft of 350 Canada Geese. With them several white birds which included 2-3 male Common Goldeneye and the Ross's Goose. The tiny white goose stood out like a sore thumb among its big brown cousins.

So having been missing since Sunday, the Ross's Goose continues and I'm not over surprised by this. Most unusual geese at this site tend to stage for 5-10 days or more before moving on. At the moment conditions are ideal (mild and wet) for feeding so unless hunting activity pushes them back to the canal or to Barton Cove, the geese will most likely be absent for large chunks of the day as we've just experienced in the early part of this week. The best bet for catching up with the Ross's would be very early morning (before 07:30hrs) or late afternoon/early evening.

Ross's Goose - Turner's Falls power canal, Franklin Co., MA. December 24th, 2014.

Images taken at first light in heavy overcast and drizzle. Continuing bird, first found by Bob Zadja on December 20th.

MA - ROSS'S GOOSE in Gill

So, the 'purple patch' in the Pioneer Valley continues.

I'd just finished a four-mile run in Gill and was about to drive home when I thought I'd better check the Western Mass Birders Facebook page...and I'm glad I did! Steve Moytl had just posted rather briefly "Second hand report from Bob Zadja of adult Ross's Goose at Bartons Cove". I was just five minutes away and, despite not having my camera with me, could hardly resist a quick look. Scanning from Riverview Drive in Gill I soon picked up two white geese among hordes of Canadas, one them clearly being the described adult Ross's Goose. The whole flock slowly drifted across from Turner's Falls and started linger on the Gill side of the river at which point I put out an additional alert on WMB and then headed home for my camera. In between times Scott Surner had also received a call from Bob Zadja, and called me just to make sure that I was in the loop. About an hour later, Scott and I were enjoying the Ross's Goose together as it grazed with Canada Geese and two Snow Geese off Riverview Drive. Apparently, according to WMB, it spent much of the day in the same spot allowing many local birders to catch up with it.

Kudos to the finder Bob Zadja, and to Steve Moytl for getting the word out so quickly on WMB.

Ross's Goose - with immature Snow Goose (two present), Gill, Franklin Co., MA. December 20th, 2014.

White-fronted and Ross's Geese, Scottsdale - 01/27

A rain soaked morning ruled out the possibility of doing point counts, so I headed over to Scottsdale to check out the goose flocks. I was astonished to find Back Lake at McCormick Ranch virtually devoid of geese, a site which held up to 800 Canada Geese on recent visits! A quick check of a small pond just north of the McCormick Parkway revealed just eight geese, but two of these were White-fronts! Afterwards, I tried Chaparral Park off Hayden Road and found a few more Canada Geese but a tiny adult Ross's Goose 'free-loading' with the domestic fowl was easily the highlight. Some 30 Northern Rough-winged Swallows were hawking over the water here in the deluge.

Greater White-fronted Geese - adult and first-winter, McCormick Ranch. The adult is almost certainly the same that I found close to this location on Dec 22nd, 2007. The younger bird wasn't present on that date.

Adult Ross's Goose - managed to get rid of the fishing line shortly after this image was taken!

JPS