ML646859320

Observation details

I have been staking out the Snow Goose flock on Yellow Bar for weeks, ever since two Ross's first showed up with the Snows on East Pond a few weeks ago. I made two attempts by kayak and have driven down to scope from West Pond three or four times. I'm not sure how many hours I invested in this one tick once you add in travel time either in the car or on the kayak, probably something like a full 24 hours? I was starting to doubt they were still around, though, because no one has been trying to catch them on the East Pond and it's been at least a week since one was documented in the area. Today I thought I saw a really small goose at the far end of Yellow Bar and then Jeff Gramm texted me that he thought he'd seen the Ross's flying over Yellow Bar and putting down at that end, so I put in five hours scrutinizing those feeding flocks in and out of the marsh grasses. I had a very small white goose far away a couple of times, but it was too far for me to be sure, and I eventually gave up and packed up my gear. As I was starting to walk out, though, a flock of around 100 Snow Geese came flying in from Yellow Bar and as soon as I put my bins on them I thought I had a Ross's with them. I followed the flock as it circled and then set down on the ice on West Pond to drink, and then quickly reassembled my camera and picked up a tiny little white goose with a itty bill. The flock sat on the ice drinking for about ten minutes, then picked up and flew back to the north side of Yellow Bar. The photos on the ground were actually taken when the bird was in Queens, but I tracked this bird coming in from Brooklyn and heading back there. I have included a few shots of the flock in flight that I believe show the Ross's (at least, they show one much smaller goose with apparently narrower wings), and I included those only because if I am right they are documentation of the bird when it was actually within Brooklyn. I am happy to remove those photos, though, if reviewers feel that they muddy the issue. Kings County bird #343! It was a lot of work.