Anxious to bird off the barrier beach on this cold and windy day, I headed out to Massapequa Preserve, hoping that the recent three inches of powder would cover the very icy trails. Upon arriving I parked on Parkside Boulevard and headed in to the "Pittsburgh Ave." Pond. There were a number of Canada Geese present and one smallish white goose. My first thought was that I had found the elusive Ross's Goose, but as the bird turned sideways the bill was too long for a Ross's Goose and had a prominent grinning patch. Nevertheless, the small size of the bird, along with the rounded head and short neck, suggested a Ross's x Snow Goose hybrid. After consulting some photos of Snow Geese, the bill did seem intermediate between Snow Goose and Ross's Goose. I have posted some photos of the goose on my flickr site, along with photos of Ross's and Snow Geese. Heading further north I was pleasantly surprised to see the Orange-crowned Warbler feeding in the same stand of cattails where it was found on the Southern Nassau CBC in early January. There was a fair variety of waterfowl in the stream including Wood Duck (2) Pintail, American Wigeon, Gadwall, and Green-winged Teal. My FOS Common Grackle feeding along the creek edge was a reminder that blackbirds are moving north despite the weather.
Ken Feustel http://www.flickr.com/photos/keustel/ -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
