By Sally Siko
Yesterday I got up early and made a two hour and a half hour trip south to the coast of NC in search of two rare birds.
The drive paid off when I found the first species at Ft.Fisher, a Lark Sparrow. Then the cherry on top came in the form of this beautiful White-fronted Goose in Wilmington!
The goose had been reported to be hanging out with a flock of Canada geese resting on a pond on the grounds of a local a high school.
When my friend Corie and I arrived, we immediately jumped out of the car and grabbed our cameras to scan the shoreline of the pond in search of the goose.
As I swept the landscape with my lens, my heart sank. There were a ton of Canada’s snoozing and preening on the bank but no sign of the White-fronted.
Could it have left?
Not wanting to give up, I started walking around the pond to see if another perspective would help me spot the goose.
The pond had a steep shoreline on one side which meant anything roosting at its base would be obscured from view when standing on the flat ground above.
As I made my way around the east corner, a familiar chocolate, brown, and white face popped up from the downslope.
The White-fronted Goose!
Success!!!
Now you might be wondering why I’d care about seeing a single goose.
The reason is that White-fronted Geese are a rare winter visitor to NC.
Though their sightings appear to be increasing over the years, they are definitely not our “normal” wintertime birds.
Their typical range extends west of the Mississippi river north into Canada, Greenland, Alaska, Europe and Russia.
Although the numbers of visiting White-fronted Geese have been increasing in North Carolina in recent years, it is still a remarkable thing to see one!
Look for them hiding in plain sight within flocks of Canada Geese, Snow Geese and Ross’s Geese feeding in the agricultural fields or paddling around the freshwater waterfowl impoundments of our eastern counties from now through March.
@bestlife_birding captured on my mighty mirrorless monster, the @canonusa #R5
