[cayugabirds-l] HUGE flock of snow geese - late post

[Ray Zimmerman]

Sorry for the late post, but around noon on Sat 1/2/16, as I returned to Ithaca 
from Auburn on Rt 34 I came across a field full of thousands, and I guessed 
probably 10’s of thousands of snow geese between Scipio Center and Genoa. 
Initially the flock was on both sides of the road, but part of the flock 
flushed and moved to the west side of the road during the 10 min or so I spent 
watching before I had to move on, but I did get some video …

https://www.dropbox.com/s/vqvoccmf1371yi3/IMG_2577.MOV?dl=0

(download the video for the best quality)

— Ray


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Re: [cayugabirds-l] HUGE flock of snow geese - late post

[Ray Zimmerman]

Pardon the multiple posts, but here’s a panoramic shot of what the west side of 
34 looked like when I arrived on the scene. 

   https://www.dropbox.com/s/q3lhxq7sop6jdvz/IMG_2572.JPG?dl=0

(zoom in to 100% to see the geese, and don’t be alarmed by the 
strange-looking 3-wheeled vehicle on the road ;-)

— Ray


> On Jan 4, 2016, at 2:11 PM, Ray Zimmerman  wrote:
> 
> Sorry for the late post, but around noon on Sat 1/2/16, as I returned to 
> Ithaca from Auburn on Rt 34 I came across a field full of thousands, and I 
> guessed probably 10’s of thousands of snow geese between Scipio Center and 
> Genoa. Initially the flock was on both sides of the road, but part of the 
> flock flushed and moved to the west side of the road during the 10 min or so 
> I spent watching before I had to move on, but I did get some video …
> 
> https://www.dropbox.com/s/vqvoccmf1371yi3/IMG_2577.MOV?dl=0 
> 
> 
>   (download the video for the best quality)
> 
> — Ray
> 
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Re: [cayugabirds-l] HUGE flock of snow geese - late post

[Peter]

Hi.
To add credence to this post, I, along with my pal Kyle Gage, took part 
in the Eaton Birding Society's CBC count this past Saturday (the 2nd). 
Between 3:30 and 4:00 p.m. we were positioned south of Geneva a few 
miles east of Seneca lake.
We had counted large flocks of snow geese all day - ranging in size from 
50 to 600 to 2,000.
However, and to our utter amazement, around 3:45 p.m. as we stood in a 
field a few miles south of Geneva, NY and a few miles off the east side 
of Seneca lake we saw - flying from northeasterly to southwesterly 
direction - a literal "invasion" of snow geese!!
The "hoards" just kept coming and coming and coming and coming and 
coming..thousands and thousands of birds!!
And just beneath these flocks, almost imperceptible to the naked eye, 
were flocks of thousands and thousands more - they too, kept coming and 
coming and coming.
We were both awestruck and dumbfounded.
To borrow a phrase from another text we were "incredulous with sheer joy 
and wonder"!!!
I have never seen such a spectacle in my entire life..
We were trying to count this vast amount and we broke them up into 
groupings of one hundred birds.
We finally decided on an estimated of close to 500,000 birds.
A big "discussion" ensued at our final CBC tally because some doubted 
our number.
Kyle and I stuck to our guns and argued our case..
We finally decided to error on the side of caution and the consensus was 
to list the number at 200,000.
What saved the day for Kyle and I was a fellow birder who was present 
and mention that Kevin McGowan had taken an aerial view of a massive 
number of snow gees at the north end of Cayuga Lake about 8 or 9 springs 
ago and, with the help of a computer,  estimated the total number of 
snow geese at around 900,000.
Anyways, I was very glad to witness this spectacle and will never forget it.
Pete Saracino


On 1/4/2016 2:11 PM, Ray Zimmerman wrote:
> Sorry for the late post, but around noon on Sat 1/2/16, as I returned 
> to Ithaca from Auburn on Rt 34 I came across a field full of 
> thousands, and I guessed probably 10’s of thousands of snow geese 
> between Scipio Center and Genoa. Initially the flock was on both sides 
> of the road, but part of the flock flushed and moved to the west side 
> of the road during the 10 min or so I spent watching before I had to 
> move on, but I did get some video …
>
> https://www.dropbox.com/s/vqvoccmf1371yi3/IMG_2577.MOV?dl=0
>
> /(download the video for the best quality)/
>
> — Ray
>
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> Rules and Information 
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