As Sherry Hagen posted to OBOL earlier in the day we had an
EMPEROR GOOSE today on a Vancouver Audubon outing to the Vancouver Lake
Lowlands. The bird was first seen in a flock of CACKLING GEESE in a
plowed cornfield along Old Lower River Road just south of the farm there.
Sherry and Arden Hagen showed up with Mary Ann Teague about five minutes
after the birds flew from this location. We split up and searched the
flocks of geese for the next couple of hours with the help of Ken and
Laurie Knittle to no avail. As Carol Kohler and I were heading home we
swung past the original location where we had spotted the bird and found
it back in the same field. We phoned the Hagen's and they and Mary Ann
who had already headed home turned around and made it back in time to
view the bird during the last half hour of light.
Nine people had joined me for this outing which produced
extremely slow birding in the thick fog until the sun burnt it clear. As
the lighting was improving we stopped to scan a large flock of geese and
picked out a hybrid Cackler that fit the description of what is mistaken
for a blue-morph Ross' Goose. This was the first of five hybrid geese we
saw during the day. There was a large Gray-lag type domestic goose with
three very strange looking youngster accompanying it. Two of these birds
had Canada Goose bodies, large white face patches, with orange bills and
legs, the third bird looked like a huge thick-necked Canada with a gray
neck and lighter gray chin strap. Along with several GREATER
WHITE-FRONTED GEESE in the same flock was a small dark goose that looked
from a distance like a Pink-footed Goose.
Out of the 54 other species seen the only others of note were a
juvenile NORTHERN SHRIKE in the wetland along old Lower River Road, one
AMERICAN BITTERN at Post Office Lake and at least five TUNDRA SWANS on
Vancouver Lake.
Wilson Cady
Washougal, WA