{"id":13051,"date":"2024-01-13T18:46:11","date_gmt":"2024-01-13T23:46:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/?p=13051"},"modified":"2024-01-13T19:09:04","modified_gmt":"2024-01-14T00:09:04","slug":"winter-waterfowl-count-01-13-24","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/?p=13051","title":{"rendered":"Winter Waterfowl Count, 01\/13\/24"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Today Linda Scrima and I participated in the Mearns Bird Club’s Orange County Winter Waterfowl Count. For the sixth straight year, the two of us covered the Black Dirt Region for the survey. This year was particularly interesting. Typically in mid January there isn’t much open water, but with this year’s recent warm temperatures, all bodies of water were open. Additionally, with all the rain we’ve had recently, the black dirt had much flooding, creating waterfowl habitat where typically there wouldn’t be (I had a pair of Northern Pintails and a Green-winged Teal in the middle of a flooded corn field!). And finally, a bit of luck is always helpful. Linda had a large group of Snow Geese fly over (2,500+ birds!), and then we both found a decent sized flock (approximately 700 birds), which had put down at the Camel Farm. The one disappointment was, that in spite of the large number of Canada and Snow Geese located, we were unable to locate any rare geese. Not even a Cackling Goose. Thanks to Linda for coordinating and for the good company. It was probably the most enjoyable Winter Waterfowl Survey I’ve done yet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n