November 18, 2020
We met at Nolan Quarry at 8:00 am. Barb C and Jane were already there and Ken came shortly after us.
The Bean Goose had already left for the fields, so we did too. Sure was hard getting up and down that steep bank.
We followed Ken to Milton Road the back way in case we intercepted our targets. We parked along Milton road and scoped the distant geese. Barbara spotted a couple of Rough-legged Hawks. Margaret and Connie joined us.
Finally Ken and Jane spotted the two Greater White-fronted Geese that had been reported. They were sleeping on the far bank of the creek.
We moved to Perrault and Connie treated us to her home-made muffins.
Ken got a message that the Bean Goose and Ross's Goose had returned to Nolan, so off we went to repeat the big climb, although Barbara and Connie stayed down to check the roads. The Bean Goose was actually quite close, so most of us were scoping the far side when Jane spotted it. A distant blue-morph Snow Goose was also there.
We also spotted the Barnacle Goose, but were unable to get a photo this time. Then came the tricky descent again.
Counting Canada and Cackling Geese, we already had our seven species! The rest of the group had already seen large numbers of Snow Geese at Moose Creek lagoon, so we decided to head there on our own following Jane's directions. On the way, we saw a very large Coyote far off in a field.
We found the lagoon easily, but were a bit disappointed to see only 6 Snow Geese there, but there were many Common Redpolls along the fence.
Those six geese took off, but seemed to settle just across the road. Indeed, there were several hundred over there, included quite a few juveniles. We had a good look at a blue morph juvenile too.
Rather than taking the 417 home, we decided to take the back roads. We were rewarded with another couple of Rough-legged Hawks.
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