I’ve been visiting Shoreline Lake in the early morning this week and yesterday it paid off with this new goose. Plumage-wise it looks a little like a domestic Greylag Goose, but notice how much smaller it is than the adjacent Canada Goose. My first reaction when I saw it in silhouette was that it was a Cackling Goose, but no cackler ever looked like this:
Numerous other birds were seen yesterday morning including my first California Peregrine Falcon and Belted Kingfisher. Later in the day I added one more, Black Skimmer.
Total species count for the morning walk was 41:
Greater White-fronted Goose
Canada Goose
Gadwall
Mallard
Cinnamon Teal
Northern Shoveler
Canvasback
Ring-necked Duck
Surf Scoter
Bufflehead
Common Goldeneye
Common Merganser
Ruddy Duck
Pied-billed Grebe
Eared Grebe
Western Grebe
Double-crested Cormorant
Snowy Egret
Black-crowned Night-Heron
Peregrine Falcon
American Coot
Black-necked Stilt
American Avocet
Willet
Ring-billed Gull
California Gull
Herring Gull
Mourning Dove
Anna’s Hummingbird
Belted Kingfisher
Black Phoebe
American Crow
Bushtit
American Robin
Northern Mockingbird
California Towhee
Song Sparrow
White-crowned Sparrow
Golden-crowned Sparrow
House Finch
American Goldfinch
My California list is now 148 species, just 4 short of number 2 New Jersey. My New York list is somewhere over 250 (I didn’t keep such good records when I was just starting out) but with a full year yet to go, California may top that. My lifelist should easily cross 400 this year with all these great new California birds. If I get to China in April as planned, I may even make 500.
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