Another Middle-aged Visitor from Canada

I have a lot of photos of Redheads, but somehow I can't resist....

We found another neck band tagged Canada Goose yesterday, this time down on the Mohawk . It was pouring rain and not easy to get a readable photo but we did.

Lesser Scaup as well
I have been struggling to decide whether the birds we see are Greater
or Lesser Scaup. Worrying about bill nails and head notches and feather patterns
Then I read this article that says that male Greater have only green iridescence on their heads
Never purple. Made this guy a lot easier.....Lesser

Turned in a band report and was not surprised to discover that this goose came from the same place in Canada and was banded by the same man as last week's bird. The tag was the same color...white on orange...as the 12-year-old male we found last week...and very close to the same number series.

This bird was a female thirteen years of age, also banded when too young to fly.

How cool is it to see a single bird....or maybe two or even three, although we still haven't heard on the bird with the red or pink tag....among tens of thousands and to know where they were hatched?

There are indeed thousands of geese in the valley this week. Guesstimating counts for eBird reports is an interesting challenge. I imagine many of them are on their way to Canada along with the banded ones. I  don't think I will ever grow tired of hearing their wild cries as they fly overhead or launch into the air when an eagle passes over on the river.

Interesting tourists indeed.

from Northview Diary https://ift.tt/2unOWm8