We were disappointed to find only smaller rafts of Common and Red-breasted Mergansers and no Goldeneyes. Some very blurry (click to embiggen) photos:
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More:
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Look at this bird sticking his neck up, on the right:
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a merganser. So we saw 20 birds when I snapped these pics, but when I was looking in the scope a little after these guys flew and landed again, the numbers were lower and those are the ones I went with for my eBird count below.
There was also a large flock of at least 250 Canada Geese, and mixed into that flock was one odd goose with pink/orange legs and feet, a white ring around the base of his bill (which was not black but not orange either--orange-black?), some random white feathers on the back of his tall black neck, and whitish cheek patch (sort of dirty white) but definitely NOT a white chinstrap like the other Canadas. It was just a patch on either check, with black underneath. It looked somewhat like a Greater White-fronted Goose but somehow NOT. Here are the three best pics:
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A local listserver said that it kinda looks like some of these Barnacle x White-fronted crosses. Maybe?
Our whole list:
Canada Goose 250 (including the weirdo)
Mallard 4
Common Merganser 6
Red-breasted Merganser 4
Ruddy Duck 1
Bonaparte's Gull 10
Ring-billed Gull 1
Northern Flicker (Yellow-shafted) 3
Black-capped Chickadee 3
Eastern Bluebird 3
European Starling 15
Northern Cardinal 1
I was really hoping to see a Goldeneye; it would've been a lifer.
3 comments:
Hi, dg! I love the picture at the top, very nice.
Canada Geese often hybridize with domestic geese like Greylags. We have a few of them in my area that initially caused me confusion. Here is one of my local ones. Here are some documented around Ithaca.
I'm not sure about the white-cheeked duck. It doesn't look like a goldeneye to me, but I'm not sure exactly what it is if not that.
Matty Boy--thanks!
John--I feel the same way. It doesn't seem like a merganser in the photo, but in real life it did. Maybe just a trick of light in the photo?
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