Honestly, I have lived cumulative about 15 months in Waterloo. For the first 10 of those months I saw zero birders when I was out birding on my own. So it's a big deal to see birders out in Waterloo!
Today there were no less than 10 individuals, needless to say drawn out by the gulls and geese!
I dragged one of my roommates out to see the birds today. When I was scanning the geese he said to me "what's that one with the bright orange legs and looks like an Egyptian Goose"! It was pretty easy to find today because it was roaming around in a grassy field with the other geese. It was also super tame and allowed me to get very close for some pictures:
An adult Glaucous Gull was on the ice at Columbia Lake today - a new year bird for me :)
This 1st winter Lesser Black-backed Gull was nice to see as well. I don't think anyone else has reported this individual yet this season so I suspect it is a new arrival.
Later in the afternoon I returned to Columbia Lake to check out the geese. The Greater White-fronted was right where I left it.
Although the legs seem uniformly bright orange, the bill seems a bit duller towards the base. That means it comes from the frontalis population/sub-species that breeds in arctic North America versus from Greenland. Waterloos first record of Greater White-fronted Goose was a bird from the Greenland race!
Josh V was also there to see the goose. Check out how approachable it was:
This first winter Iceland Gull has been at the lake for 2 straight days:
The birding has been good in Waterloo this week! :-D
