Dorothy Haines, a Madison Audubon member for over 50 years (recently featured in our Meet a Birder series), and eight residents of Oakwood Village East visited Goose Pond today and were greeted by thousands of waterfowl and ring-billed gulls and mid-October weather. Dorothy enjoyed stopping at the Browne Prairie and at the Kiosk.

*Dorothy Haines has been a frequent visitor and supporter of Goose Pond through the years. Photo by Mark Martin*

*Oakwood Village East enjoys an outing to Goose Pond. Photo by Mark Martin*

There were hundreds of geese close to Goose Pond Road and many Mallards circling over the surrounding fields. The bus driver liked to identify birds including landing sSandhill Cranes, Ring-billed Gulls that flew right over the bus and and a hen Ring-necked Pheasant that the bus flushed. Rick Feldman with Oakwood Village was entertaining and asked a lot of questions. He had handouts from our Friday Feathered Features to show the residents. Everyone was looking for a kestrel but had no luck finding the small falcons. However, we had a close look at a Red-tailed Hawk perched near a kestrel box.

Columbus Grade School has been frequent visitors to Goose Pond and Otsego Marsh this fall. A class visited Otsego Marsh today and as they hiked up the trail a teacher said, "We are going to see what has changed since we were here last." Some of the nine year olds had laptops along. We wonder if the youngsters saw the 10 point buck that Richard Armstong photographed there 10 days ago.

*Columbus Grade Schoolers get ready for their nature walk at Otsego Marsh. Photo by Mark Martin*

*Oh deer! Photo of white-tailed deer by Richard Armstrong*

We hope the nine year olds will still be visiting our sanctuaries in 2100.

Written by Mark Martin and Sue Foote-Martin, Goose Pond Sanctuary resident managers