#394 Greater White-fronted Goose at Shoreline Park
I’ve been visiting Shoreline Lake in the early morning this week and yesterday it paid off with this new goose. Plumage-wise it looks a little like a domestic Greylag Goose, but notice how much smaller it is than the adjacent Canada Goose. My first reaction when I saw it in silhouette was that it was a Cackling Goose, but no cackler ever looked like this:
Numerous other birds were seen yesterday morning including my first California Peregrine Falcon and Belted Kingfisher. Later in the day I added one more, Black Skimmer.
Total species count for the morning walk was 41:
- Greater White-fronted Goose
- Canada Goose
- Gadwall
- Mallard
- Cinnamon Teal
- Northern Shoveler
- Canvasback
- Ring-necked Duck
- Surf Scoter
- Bufflehead
- Common Goldeneye
- Common Merganser
- Ruddy Duck
- Pied-billed Grebe
- Eared Grebe
- Western Grebe
- Double-crested Cormorant
- Snowy Egret
- Black-crowned Night-Heron
- Peregrine Falcon
- American Coot
- Black-necked Stilt
- American Avocet
- Willet
- Ring-billed Gull
- California Gull
- Herring Gull
- Mourning Dove
- Anna’s Hummingbird
- Belted Kingfisher
- Black Phoebe
- American Crow
- Bushtit
- American Robin
- Northern Mockingbird
- California Towhee
- Song Sparrow
- White-crowned Sparrow
- Golden-crowned Sparrow
- House Finch
- American Goldfinch
My California list is now 148 species, just 4 short of number 2 New Jersey. My New York list is somewhere over 250 (I didn’t keep such good records when I was just starting out) but with a full year yet to go, California may top that. My lifelist should easily cross 400 this year with all these great new California birds. If I get to China in April as planned, I may even make 500.
