A Greater White-fronted Goose continues on the lawn at Duke Island Park, Bridgewater Twp. as of this afternoon. Also in attendance is a Cackling Goose, 1,310 Canada Geese and the Spackling Goose of local fame and lore (Jeff Ellerbusch). The Spackling Goose (SPGO) was first discovered in January of 2012 (see that post here). This will mark the 4th winter of this odd goose. Stories are told how hunters crave it, but so far it has escaped their buckshot.
Thousands of Geese are in the area of the confluence of the North and South Branches of the Raritan River. Another 1,230 Canada Geese were at North Branch Park this afternoon as well as 200+ Ring-billed Gulls (J. Ellerbusch). The Duke Island and North Branch Park sighting were in the 1:30- 2:00 pm time frame. Interestingly, this writer drove past those same locations at 1:00 and saw zero geese at Duke Island and only a small amount at North Branch. But, thousands of geese were in the corn stubble south of Studdiford Drive along the South Branch of the Raritan River. At 1:15 p.m. groups of these geese were seen taking off and flying in the direction of both parks.
The farm fields in the Branchburg-Hillsborough area are also of interest. In the farmland along River Road south of South Branch Road, is the continuing large congregation of Ring-billed Gulls numbering into the many hundreds. Previous years have seen Iceland and Lesser Black-backed Gulls in this area.
eBird Note
Please note: Birdventure, creator of the BirdTrax applet used on the Birds of New Jersey web site has ceased support of the checklist viewing feature.
Fear Not! eBird has struck gold again with Region Explorer
On the mocosocoBirds.com web site sidebar are links to the Morris and Somerset county checklist views of Region Explorer. Here are the links:
A post is forthcoming describing eBird Hotspots, the how and why to use them, and will also mention Region Explorer.
Finis
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