Eric Miller found a Cackling Goose this afternoon on Alley Pond (the pond at the intersection of the LIE and Cross Island Pkwy in Queens). Canada Goose numbers there were much higher than they had been up until now. So quite possibly these are new arrivals, making it excusable that the Cackling was missed on Sunday's count. But it is squeezed into count week at nearly the last minute. In an odd twist to this story, I was just out doing work in my backyard, where I watched two small groups of geese fly over. These were coming from the direction of Alley Pond, which is rather close to me. One of the groups contained a noticeably smaller goose at the tail end of one of the V's.
Also seen at Alley Pond was the long lingering Lesser Yellowlegs, which stayed out of sight on count day. It makes that CBC thing seem less like an accurate survey and more like a game (like Hide and Seek). I think we should get bonus points or something to denote that it was actually in the count circle all along, as opposed to leaving after the first day of count week. Steve Walter Bayside, NY -- 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/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/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/ --
