Others noted today that there were good numbers of geese near Prescott, both Canadas and Snows. I covered the area from Cornwall to Cardinal today and the area from Ingleside east to Lake St. Francis (east of Lancaster) was covered yesterday. In the area I covered the number of Canadas was staggering. I didn't do a full count but there were likely several hundred thousand. There is no single large concentration but almost the entire river is lined with Canadas on both the Canadian and American side, especially along the ice edge and on adjacent open ground, with regular concentrations of a few thousand to 5-10,000. The river is wide open to the west all the way from east of Morrisburg. There is at least a channel for the rest of the river to the east (shipping starts tomorrow) but it is hard to see open water until you reach Ingleside, Long Sault and then closer to Cornwall. There were mostly Canadas east of Cornwall. The area east of Lancaster was largely 'gooseless' yesterday. Lake St. Francis is frozen. It is unlikely that area will be sufficiently open by the weekend to attract a large number of Snow Geese but anything can change.
There has been a major movement of Snow Geese (mostly Greaters) but unlike the Canadas they are very concentrated. Today I had about 13,000 west of Morrisburg, about 10,000+ closer to Iroquois in two flocks and possibly another 8,000 east of Cardinal. You can drive for kilometres and not see one then you hit a flock. It was all or nothing. There were thousands more west towards Prescott and yesterday unknown thousands in a few flocks from Ingleside to Long Sault. Morrisburg had the most satisfying observation today with many birds close to the road (the road that runs from Morrisburg west along the river, not Cty Rd 2. The birds will tolerate vehicles parked on the west end of the 'causeway' and if you use your vehicle as a shield they will tend to stay in close. Walking disturbs them. They don't care about vehicles driving by. Wherever you find an ice edge you will find geese. Once these areas lose their ice the geese may be more spread out or move on. There was a single Cackling Goose at Morrisburg. The only other goose of note today was a leucistic Canada. Watch from neck-collared Snow Geese. I had one at Morrisburg. The St. Lawrence is not a major stopover for divers in spring so you will see few but you will see some small concentrations when the area east of Lancaster opens up. Brian Morin Cornwall _______________________________________________ ONTBIRDS is presented by the Ontario Field Ornithologists (OFO) - the provincial birding organization. Send bird reports to birdalert@ontbirds.ca For information about ONTBIRDS including how to unsubscribe visit http://www.ofo.ca/site/page/view/information.ontbirdssetup Posting guidelines can be found at http://www.ofo.ca/site/page/view/information.ontbirdsguide Visit the OFO Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/OntarioFieldOrnithologists
