Greater White-fronted Goose and 9 Cackling Geese

Greater White-fronted Goose, Duke Island Park, NJ, Dec. 1, 2014 (photo by Jonathan Klizas)

(Click on the photo for a larger image.)

The front lawn of Duke Island Park (Old York Road and the main entrance to the park) played host to a Greater White-fronted Goose and 9 Cackling Geese this afternoon found by Jeff Ellerbusch. They and the 450-500 Canada Geese were still present at 3:00 p.m. 11 American Pipits were feeding in a puddle along the entrance drive.

Greater White-fronted Goose is annual at Duke Island Park since at least 2011.

9 Cackling Geese is a healthy number but doesn’t come close to the 33 Cackling Geese that Jeff Ellerbusch counted at Duke Island on January 2, 2012. This remains the highest single count in the state of New Jersey according to the eBird database.

A Ross’s Goose spent the day of December 5, 2011 on the same front lawn as today’s geese.

9 Cackling Geese, Duke Island Park, NJ, Dec. 1, 2014 (photo by Jeff Ellerbusch)

Other Field Notes

Neither the Snow Buntings seen yesterday nor the Vesper Sparrow seen the previous two days were found today at Melanie Lane Wetlands (Roger Johnson).

View eBird checklists and other data at the following links.
Click on the Checklists tab of the BirdTrax applet to display the most recent checklists. Click on this
icon,  ,to view the contents of the checklist:

• Morris Checklists
• Somerset Checklists

@mocosocoBirds at Twitter is another
communications stream. Instant field reports and links of interest are tweeted throughout the day. The latest tweets appear on the sidebar of this page. One can follow mocosocoBirds at Twitter or link to @mocosocoBirds.

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