(no subject)

[camwyn]

Side note on today's bicycle thing: when I rode into Liberty State Park today I had to do some slalom work because OH MY GOD THE GOOSE DOO. All over the place. Little green cigar butts, squishy and yuck- and fresh, too. It came from a flock of geese I saw grazing on the grasses towards the river, also wandering across Audrey Zapp Lane and ignoring cars. At first I thought they were Canada geese- but only for a second, because they were the wrong size. Plus, their proportions were off. They were shaped like ducks with longish necks, for all that they had black heads and white throat markings and grayish bodies. I did some poking in Wiki, and then searched on Google for the candidate species, and found them.

They were Brent Geese, the pale-bellied subspecies. I think there must have been at least thirty birds there, maybe more. I didn't know they flocked in New Jersey!

Comments

[derien.livejournal.com]

Weird - it says they winter from Maine to Georgia, but I don't know that I ever saw them. Probably I assumed they were Canada geese or some type of duck - I'm not that curious about birds. Well, not so much that I'm not so curious, it's jut that I never remember to look anything up and I have a horrible memory for any details about them.

Sounds as though their population is growing; possibly their area has spread.

[maps-or-guitars.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, those guys are all over Jersey. I call them Mawl Geeze.

[camwyn]

This was the first time I'd ever seen them, and I'm usually pretty good about noticing when I'm seeing a species of bird I haven't seen before. I was sort of wondering if the weird weather this year had altered their migratory path.

Fair Weather Fowl

[argonautilus.livejournal.com]

Well actually, several species of duck and geese have been making really good recoveries lately. Enough that I've seen at least 3 species of ducks near my house (which is really unheard of. I used only occasionally see a Mallard).

[ymfaery]

...

I must have Peking duck on the brain or something, because my first thought was, "Are they tasty?"