Needles in a Haystack
Geese flock on pond behind Carpenter Road in Westtown
An exciting find by several members of the Mearns Bird Club here in Orange County! No fewer than 27 Greater White-fronted geese were found on two ponds…Lockenhurst Pond and a second pond located along Carpenter Road about 6 miles away. Probably the same group moving between the two ponds, but who knew which pond they would decide to be on at what time? In total, our best estimate was that between the two bodies of water, there were approximately 2000 Canada geese. Out of that number, our target birds comprised about 1 %. Ever heard of the “Needle in the haystack”?
My first stop was at the original site where the target bird, the Greater white-fronted goose, had bee sighted. It was about 9:00 AM and the sun was not in a very opportune attitude. The video above actually makes the birds look more descernable than they actually were. A friend of mine joined me and we both scanned the group of about 400 birds looking in vain for the target. As a consolation prize, we did find a couple of blue morph Snow geese (aka “Blue goose”) of adult and juvenile age. These are excellent birds to find in winter here in the county, but really not all that rare….and not our target.
“Blue goose” on Lockenhurst Pond 12/7/25
At least the Snow geese are easier to pick out in a crowd of Canadas. Taller and with a bright white head, they really do stand out compared to the White-fronted geese we were pursuing. Earlier in the morning, those birds had been sighted over at the pond along Carpenter Road, about 6 miles away. Having never birded that site, I figured it would just be a case of plugging the address into my “Waze” app and drive on over. Of course, there are 8 Carpenter Road-Ave-Lane etc around this area, so the haystack was growing in size. Finally figured out which site it “should be” and headed over to see what I could see.
Luckily, the first Carpenter I chose happened to be the right one and the description from one of the folks posting about their sightings of the Greater white-fronted seemed to match what I found here. I pulled over to the side of the road, got out the scope and started to peruse the expanse of water across a vacant (but private) lot. Keeping off the “verboten” land, I soon found a couple more Snow geese. Another member of our club arrived on the scene and she brought me good luck. First two, then three, then several more of the Greater white-fronted geese appeared in the scope. A goose never looked so good. Why is this bird so coveted here in the county? As noted in Kenn Kaufmann’s “Lives of North American Birds”, “In North American, this gray goose is found mainly west of the Mississippi River. Nesting on Arctic tundra, it winters in open country in mild climates. Birds nesting in Greenland migrate east over the North Atlantic, wintering in Ireland and rarely stray to northeastern North America.” And yet, here they are….26 + of these beautiful geese right here in our backyard.
Greater White-fronted geese and Canada geese all sharing the same pond. 12/7/25
Greater white-fronted geese along Carpenter Road 12/7/25
Beautiful adult Snow goose on pond behind Carpenter Road 12/7/25
While the Snow geese seen on Lockenhurst Pond were the blue morph variety, those on this body of water were the pure white for which they are named. A third goose which we saw, but which I sadly did not capture on “film” was the Cackling goose, a smaller “look-alike’ cousin of the Canada goose…..an even smaller “needle”. All in all, quite the day and quite the successful chase. As I keep saying, there’s more to come in this winter wonderland of New York before we head south and join the other migrating creatures. Time to “make hay while the sun shines!”
