Wed 10 Oct 2007
I went out this morning in western Winnebago County to look for LeConte’s Sparrows and migrating hawks. No luck, although there were lots of TVs moving. At the farm ponds on Trask Bridge Road (IL 70) 1/4 mi east of Leech Road (CR 47), there were a few Snow Geese, plus a smaller white goose with a rounded head, steep forehead, and short, stubby, triangular bill whose base was straight-edged and vertical–a Ross’s Goose. There were also some stubby-billed, smaller Canada-type geese which I took to be Richardson’s or Hutchins’s forms of Cackling Goose. This is not the easiest form of Cackling Goose to ID, so one must take care. (That would be the minima form, barely larger than a Mallard, and with a dark breast.) I did not spend much time looking through all the Canada’s, or perhaps I could have found a Greater White-fronted Goose to make 5 species!
October 14th, 2007 at 5:35 pm
The geese are still there as of 5:00 p.m. on Sunday evening, 10/14. 4 Snows w/ 1 blue morph, and the Ross’. The Ross’ appears to be an immature bird. Its bill still has a lot of blackish tone to it, and it has a very faint gray wash on parts of the neck and back of the head. Late afternoon is probably the best time to try to look for these birds. I suspect that they leave early to forage in recently cut corn fields and return to Howard’s in late afternoon.