Orange County Greater White-fronted Goose!

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~Wow! Greater White-fronted Goose in the Black Dirt Region, 1/29/16.~

I love getting word of a good bird while I’m at work. Well, I love it and I hate it. It’s great because it’s exciting and something to look forward to after work, but it can be terrible too because the day inevitably passes very slowly and there is always the chance that the bird will move on. This morning I received a text from John Haas – he had a GREATER WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE among a couple thousand Canada Geese at Turtle Bay in the black dirt, which was very exciting to me! As expected, the day did drag on, and of course, as I was leaving I received word from Linda Scrima that after spending most of the day at Turtle Bay, all the geese had lifted up. She had scoured all the regular black dirt geese locations and was unable to locate any large groups of geese. I could think of one other location where the birds could be located, but it was private property. Linda met me at the location, and with the homeowner’s permission we were able to relocate the bird and get some good photos too!

My exciting evening of birding didn’t end there. I had been in contact with Bruce Nott and he was at the Newburgh Waterfront looking for gulls. I contacted him after leaving the GWFG and he was on a LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL, presumably the same bird John Haas had located earlier in the week (that guy’s having a pretty good week!). I made my way over to Newburgh and when I arrived, Bruce and Ajit and Liza Antony all had the bird in their scopes. I hopped out of the car and took a good look at the bird in both scopes before going back to the car for my own scope. They told me how they had lost the bird but relocated it while I was in transit! What a great afternoon and evening of birding!

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~They all lined up nicely for this photo, Greater White-fronted Goose up front, of course! Black Dirt Region, 1/29/16.~
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~I don’t even know if this even qualifies as a documentary photo – Lesser Black-backed Gull at the Newburgh Waterfront, 1/29/16. Click here to see a decent shot I got of a LBBG last March at this same location.~

7 thoughts on “Orange County Greater White-fronted Goose!”

  1. Glad you had such great results following a long day of waiting. It’s great when it all pays off. I am envious of the great shots you got of the goose! John

    1. Thanks again for the heads up, John, this made my week. It was really great to finally get a good up close look at a GWFG; nice looking bird for sure. Matt

  2. Hey Matt,,
    I am thinking about going to Shawangunk Grasslands this weekend so scope out some SEO’s. Do you think they are still around? Thanks for the info and all the work on the blog.

    1. Ben – Sorry just saw this comment now. Yes the Short-eared Owls are still around (it’s Saturday and I just came back from there where I had 4 SEOWs). Hope you get them this weekend. Matt

  3. Question for you. I am building a nature trail in Orange county for a condominium development and would like to include a variety of bird house. Would you or anyone you may know be able to give me some guidance in this area? The nature path/trail is off the Wallkill River.

    1. Thanks for reaching out, Ray, and sorry it took me a while to get to this – I was out of town for work with no computer. I personally do not know much about bird house types/variety, but I will see if I can put you in contact with someone who does. I will shoot you an email shortly. Matt

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