[obol] White-fronted Geese

[David Fix Jude Power]

   Hi everybody.  Kevin Spencer's note on geese prompts me to pass this on.  Alan Barron of Crescent City left a message on the Northwestern California Bird Alert (707) 822-5666 that on 10/1 he and Onik Arian (that's right) saw an astonishing 4800 Gr. White-fronted Geese roosting at Teal Point on Lake Earl, between Crescent City and Smith River in n. Del Norte Co.  This blows out of the water any previous high count for this part of California.  Alan described it as "astonishing" and he is not given to easy superlatives.  He also saw something like 40 Cackling Cackling Geese, which are uncommon at best in Del Norte and Humboldt.

   During September about 40 individuals of 15 "eastern" species of warblers were detected in Humboldt, including the county's 6th Connecticut Warbler 9/15-16.  An appealing 7-second video of the bird, found in an Arcata park by Kerry Ross, trundling along across the ground was captured by my coworker Sean McAllister.  This might have been the best September in HUM in ten years for warblers; there were "only" about 30 vagrant warblers of 13 species during the same time on S.E. Farallon Island according to Adam Brown, who posted that summary to Calbirds.  Leading the parade here in Humboldt have been 8 Chestnut-sided Warblers and 6 Blackpolls.  Palm Warblers have just begun to show up and there has been one Clay-colored Sparrow reported.  There were no outstanding shorebirds found in the county this fall (so far).  Hopefully a couple of energetic Eugene birders can help us shake things up this coming weekend.  Thanks also, Diane, for visiting last week--glad to share the CSWA we finally scraped up at the very end of our birding.     

David Fix
Arcata, California
40 51 N, 124 04 W
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