[TopOfUtah] More Northern Utah Geese

[Kristin Purdy]

Chalk up one more report of good geese in Northern Utah. Yesterday, John 
Bellmon, Keith Evans, Jack Rensel and I saw a GREATER WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE in 
Corinne in Box Elder County. The bird was hanging out with a bunch of 
Canadas and we saw it several times during the day. This bird is a first 
year and hasn't quite developed the black speckles across the belly that 
give the species the moniker "Speckle Belly" among the hunting fraternity. 
The speckling has just begun along the flanks. However, the other critical 
field marks fell into place to distinguish this bird from a Graylag.

In adition to the GWFG and Canadas, we also saw 1000-2000 Snow and Ross's 
Geese in the same area in Corinne as last year--in the cornfields along 
2400N. It's our very own Northern Utah Snow Goose Festival. The number of 
Ross's was down considerably from last year; I'd saw we saw fewer than 10 
Ross's. We only saw one blue Snow Goose and no birds with collars. Thanks to 
Paul Higgins for the tip that the geese were starting to use the cornfields 
again. I feel confident that more geese will amass there as the season 
advances and as the snow continues to melt off the fields. Let's hope for 
another high estimate of 10,000-15,000 birds like last spring.

At Salt Creek WMA in addition to the Tundra Swans and other expected species 
of waterfowl, we also saw a pair of Hooded Mergansers (a notable species for 
this location), Cinnamon Teal, and a good concentration of 40-50 
Canvasbacks. Sandhill Cranes are in and Rough-legged Hawks continue in the 
area.

It was fun to watch KUTV's "Roughin' It Outdoors" last night and see several 
members of our birding community interviewed including Roberta Wherrit and 
Jean LeBer of Great Salt Lake Audubon at the Delta Snow Goose Festival and 
Rick Fridell commenting on Desert Tortoise in the Red Cliffs Desert 
Preserve.

Kris