Canon City birding 11-30-05

Today Canon City had some of those bad winds that Janeal mentioned earlier this week. This made birding difficult since not only were most landbirds down in sheltered places, but with gusts up to 50 mph birds could be injured if flushed. I have heard some birders rationalize that birds may get flushed anyway by hikers, etc; however, I believe it is incumbent on birders to take active steps to not harm birds. This may mean not birding in a place where a birder would likely flush the birds.

For me today, that meant not birding part of the Arkansas River where I know there are likely good waterfowl--but also a good liklihood that I would flush some or all of them. And in other areas, I did not "pish" birds up as this could cause them to get blown around. And some areas I stayed further away or behind vegetation to avoid flushing birds. Nevertheless, birding was productive.

This morning at the city water ponds on Tunnel Drive all the geese were pressed to the west end of the pond. There were about 4 Greater White-fronted Geese, 8-10 probable Cackling Geese and about 100 Canada Geese.

A Ross' Goose in the pic was at the pond at Centennial Park along with American Wigeons, Mallard, a few Canada Geese, domestic and domestic-hybrid ducks. The wind gusts were so bad that both ducks and geese slid a ways across the ice several times while I was watching.

This afternoon I saw a second white (chen genus) goose flying in the strong winds with several Canada-type Geese east of Florence. As I noted before, it is unusual to have even one white goose in this area so I was floored when in late afternoon I saw a small flock of 4 white geese flying over Canon City.
SeEtta