Listing Through Life

It was an overcast, chilly, unprepossessing day, and I had no greater ambitions than to crash for the evening. I drove past the pond on Black Squirrel Creek and saw a small flock of geese gathered around the one tiny opening in the ice. It occurred to me that some of them seemed rather small, and I wondered if they might be Cackling Geese.

Thirty yards further along, I turned onto another street. I spotted another small flock of geese walking along the sidewalk next to an office building. I thought, “Those are definitely Canadas.” But the split second that it took me to glance at them was enough for me to notice that one looked different. I made a quick U-turn and saw that I was right. A juvenile Greater White-fronted Goose was at the tail-end of the parade.

The geese walked across a parking lot and were foraging on a lawn.

I walked slowly to get to where the little sunlight poking through the overcast was behind me and took photos for about 10 minutes. Greater White-fronted Geese aren’t so rare in El Paso County that birders will come from Connecticut to see one. But they are rare enough that sightings are added to the El Paso County Rare Bird Report. I’m sure the drivers of the cars passing me on Voyager thought I was a moron for taking photos of neighborhood geese, but then, they won’t get their names on the Rare Bird Report, will they?

Postscript: Next morning

It was two years and one day ago that somebody first found the Western Screech-Owl at Clear Spring Ranch in extreme southern El Paso County. It would have been a lifer for me then, and I drove down to see it. I didn’t see it. Other birders kept seeing it, so I drove down again. And again. I knew exactly where it chilled at the entrance to its hole on sunny afternoons. I just kept picking the wrong afternoons. I even took time off work to see it.

Finally, about three months later, I saw a Western Screech-Owl. But not this one. I saw one somewhere else.

A year ago, this one was back in its spot. Or so other birders said. I didn’t have the same degree of desperation anymore, but whenever I was down that way, I stopped at Clear Spring Ranch to look for it. I never saw it that winter either.

And then this past November, it was reported to be back again. I still needed a Western Screech-Owl for my El Paso County list, but more than that, I needed to see this owl. It had become something of an obsession. Already in 2020, I’d made two tries for it.

I tried again today, but this time was different. I saw the owl. After at least 15 tries over the past three years, I finally saw the owl.

Now that you know what it looks like up close, can you find it in the tree?

I wandered the trails nearby in hopes of scaring up something else interesting, like the Ladder-backed Woodpecker that’s seen there once in a while. I didn’t see it, but I did find another owl about half a mile away. This one was a Great Horned Owl.

dendrocygna (from dendron, tree, and cygnus, swan) autumnalis (belonging to autumn)

Wednesday, January 15, 2020 — 7:23 am

Winter Garden, Florida — Newton Park on Lake Apopka

I was hoping to see these ducks, but eBird sightings at Newton Park are spotty. No worries — there were a couple of retention ponds within a couple miles of the park where the ducks have often been seen lately. My plan was to go to Newton Park and see the Snail Kites and look around, then head for the retention ponds.

But maybe 15 minutes after I spotted the Snail Kite, I heard a flock of ducks go over making a high-pitched whistling sound. The ducks were silhouetted against the rising sun, but with my binoculars I could see enough to identify them as Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks. There were perhaps 12 in the flock. A few minutes later, a second flock passed over. I managed a lousy photo as they went by.

I had my lifer, but that photo wasn’t at all satisfactory. I didn’t have long to wait for another chance. I did a little better this time. It’s still a lousy photo, but at least this one is diagnostic. The ducks are lanky, with long necks, bold white wing patches, and red bills.

Finally a flock went over that gave me one brief chance to take a better photo.

And that was it. I gave myself enough time to check out the retention ponds because I really wanted to see them on the ground or in the water, but the ponds were empty today. If I had an hour or so, there’s a good chance I could have driven around the neighborhood and found them somewhere, but I had to get back. At least I saw them and got a diagnostic photo.

Historically, Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks were only found in the U.S. along the Mexican border. In recent years, their numbers have been increasing and their range has been extending north. They nest and roost in trees. This was probably one of the most common North American birds I hadn’t seen yet.