We conducted a waterfowl count out at Goose Pond on March 27th. We counted in mid morning and also the last 40 minutes until dark.
Images of Goose Pond in Spring, Photography by Monica Hall
Goose Pond Sanctuary in Columbia County reminded us today of a prairie wetland in North Dakota with a lot of white birds.
Highlights were 550 tundra swans and 1,730 snow geese. There are some blues mixed in but many flocks are all the white phase. This morning at 10:00 a.m. we counted 930 snow geese on the far east pond after they returned from feeding. Tonight there were 180 snows on the east pond and 1,540 on the west pond. We also counted 3,700 Canada geese, 72 white-fronted geese, 188 canvasbacks, 46 green-winged teal, 35 mallards, along with small numbers of blue-winged teal, gadwalls, lesser scaup, ring-necked ducks, and ruddy ducks.
Snow geese including the blue color phase (blue geese), cackling geese (smaller dark geese), Canada geese, and tundra swans at Goose Pond Sanctuary. Photo by Monica Hall
It was difficult trying to count the geese and we did not keep count of cackling geese or Ross's geese. The highest number of snow geese at Goose Pond according to ebird was our count of 1,230 snow geese in November 1991.
If you can not make it out to North Dakota this spring stop by Goose Pond Sanctuary.
Written by Mark and Sue Foote-Martin, Goose Pond Resident Managers.
