Yesterday, Don Carrier and I decided to take a quick, that turned into all
day, trip to Saltville to try to relocate the Ross's Geese that had been
reported there. We met in Abingdon and birded our way to Saltville via Rich
Valley and Old Saltworks Rds. Notables along the way were Common Raven,
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Pileated Woodpecker, Golden-crowned Kinglet,
White-throated Sparrow and many White-crowned Sparrows. Once in Saltville, we
found the lake mostly frozen and thought we might find nothing. We managed to
find one patch of open water that had a small raft of ducks containing Redhead,
Gadwall, Greater Scaup and a lone American Coot. While we were watching these
ducks we heard a large group of Canada Geese flying in and looked up to find
the two Ross's Geese flying in to land in the open patch of water forty yards
in front of us. After getting both of our life looks through the scope we
decided to try to get a closer look. We crossed a small bridge and stealthily
(as stealthily as two large, middle-aged men in heavy winter clothes can move)
made our way toward the geese hoping to get photos. We did manage to get
fairly close using trees and a picnic shelter as blinds and, as you can see by
Don's beautiful pics, photographed the birds. We also found Mallards, more
Gadwall and a Pied-billed Grebe on another pond behind the one where the geese
were. After lunch we headed across the mountain to Chilhowie and up the
interstate to Rural Retreat, where we found our first American Kestrel of the
day. At Rural Retreat lake we struck out, finding nothing but four domestic
ducks. After leaving here we decided to head to Hungry Mother State Park and
again struck out on waterfowl. After our marathon-length and largely
unproductive afternoon of birding we decided to cut our losses and head home
when, on Russell Rd. in Abingdon, just yards from Don's car, I saw large white
birds (these turned out to be domestic) with a flock of Canada Geese. We
stopped to investigate and while scanning the flock I spotted a dark morph Snow
Goose, another first for me, and while trying to get a better vantage point Don
spotted yet another Ross's Goose.
It was great day of birding and we managed to eek out 44 species with the
notables mentioned above. I've included some photographs taken with my point
and shoot that accentuate field marks and size comparisons. Of note to me were
the difference in head shape between Ross's and Snow Goose and also the absence
of the "grin patch" on the Ross's much smaller bill.
Daryl Owens,
Oakwood, VA
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