Stearn's Lake goose murmuration and Niwot mountain chickadee

[Indra]

Yesterday late afternoon into sunset, there were literally thousands of mostly Canada and some cackling geese in the cornfields just north of Stearn's Lake. The lake has a large area of open water (helped to stay open by the presence of so many geese?) that had hundreds of mallards, five male common mergansers strikingly smart in the western sunlight, and a few ring necked ducks among all the mallards. The bald eagle pair was sitting on the tree near the encroaching buildings, and a red tailed hawk and kestrel who are regularly seen there on our winter raptor survey were present. Suddenly something or someone sent the myriad geese circling and honking, rising in a cloud and noisily descending into the open water at Stearn's. It was an amazing spectacle, as it took several minutes for everyone to settle down on the water, and as they settled, four snow geese were among the mass of white cheeked geese. It seemed to be about one tenth or less of geese that looked to be cackling, but someone better than I am at separating them might check it out. Since almost everyone else was in front of a television set, it was a wonderful opportunity to have a rare moment of Front Range solitude among thousands of birds.

And this morning, the first mountain chickadee of the season joined the black capped chickadees, the red breasted and white breasted nuthatches, the different juncos (but not the one day wonder of a white winged junco) and bushtits at the feeders.

Sent from my iPad
Elena Holly Klaver
United States Court Certified Interpreter