Thursday, 22 December, 2016 - Van Cortlandt Park, Bronx (N.Y. City)
On the Parade Grounds field adjacent to Broadway, north of about West 246 Street, I found a Pink-footed Goose, in amongst well over 1,000 Canada Geese, very late this afternoon - many photos were taken, from a distance!
The goose flock here is shy, and can be spooked if approached too quickly or too closely; if you go seeking this Pink-footed, please keep a respectful distance (if any geese start to move off at your approach, it means you are getting too close for them); when seen, around 3:15 thru just past 4 pm, the Pink-footed was mostly nearer the south part of the big goose-flock, and even though it moved more into the center of the very extensive field, this was in keeping with general "drift" of the Canadas, as they all fed & milled about, a very few also resting on the grass.
These geese may (or may not) roost on the Van Cortlandt lake overnight, and may come to feed on the Parade Ground at some point in the morning (which may or may not be very early, based on some past goose observations at this site). There was also a Snow Goose present that went off to the east (perhaps to the Van Cortlandt lake), & that then came back later.
I did not give full attention to all of this 1,000+ flock of geese, and it is possible other species (such as Cackling or even some other), may have been present; once the Pink-footed was suspected, most focus was on that for this late afternoon. Andrew Baksh and many other birders will be out counting (including this area) on Monday, 12/26, for the Bronx-Westchester CBC which is compiled by Michael Bochnik.
Good luck if you try, and please, please, give the geese enough space to feed & not flush due to any birder's actions, thanks!
Tom Fiore Manhattan -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME.htm http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES.htm 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://birding.aba.org/maillist/NY01 Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
