White-fronted and Ross's Geese, Scottsdale - 01/27

A rain soaked morning ruled out the possibility of doing point counts, so I headed over to Scottsdale to check out the goose flocks. I was astonished to find Back Lake at McCormick Ranch virtually devoid of geese, a site which held up to 800 Canada Geese on recent visits! A quick check of a small pond just north of the McCormick Parkway revealed just eight geese, but two of these were White-fronts! Afterwards, I tried Chaparral Park off Hayden Road and found a few more Canada Geese but a tiny adult Ross's Goose 'free-loading' with the domestic fowl was easily the highlight. Some 30 Northern Rough-winged Swallows were hawking over the water here in the deluge.

Greater White-fronted Geese - adult and first-winter, McCormick Ranch. The adult is almost certainly the same that I found close to this location on Dec 22nd, 2007. The younger bird wasn't present on that date.

Adult Ross's Goose - managed to get rid of the fishing line shortly after this image was taken!

JPS