Nine brave Augusta Bird Club members showed up for a short field trip this
morning at 8:00 -- temperature 17 degrees F. Our destination was the Bell's
Lane area on the northern outskirts of Staunton. Our target species was the
Cackling Goose. We were fortunate to have Allen Larner along who had two of
the Cackling Geese located within a flock of 500 Canada Geese on Moore's pond
even before the rest of the group arrived. I promptly set up my scope and we
all got satisfactory, although not great, views of these smallest cousins of
out familiar Canada Geese. We could appreciate the relative size difference as
the two stood next to each other, and that the bills were obviously shorter and
stubby. This was probably a life bird for some of the group. Also present
within the open water were three Redheads, about 8 American Coots and some
Mallards. Yesterday evening there were about 10 Gadwall and a few Green-winged
Teal present, but neither of these was identified this morning. Shortly after
we saw the Cackling Geese Jo King spotted three Snow Geese flying overhead. We
all watched as they circled and came in for a splash down landing in the pond.
It's a good day when you can see three species of goose in one pond in Augusta
County.
This area also seems to be a red-tail Mecca. We saw an estimated 20 of these
raptors. Most were perched and a few seemed to be pairing up.
John Spahr
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