On December 1st, Mark Martin and JD Arnston counted 12,500 mallards, 3,800 Canada geese, and 23 tundra swans at Madison Audubon's Goose Pond. The previous high mallard count was 5,000 mallards by John Romano on November 11, 2010. On December 2nd, Graham Steinhauer and Mark counted 1,149 tundra swans at Goose Pond breaking Carl Schwartz's record of 1,100 set on November 9, 2017. In early afternoon, Mark found a picked cornfield with 1,560 swans about 2.5 miles southwest of Goose Pond. The swans were about .5 miles from Meek Road and Highway I in the middle of about 600 acres of picked corn. Mark returned to Goose Pond and counted 1,050 swans on the pond. Graham watched the swans from the cornfield return to Goose Pond near dusk. The afternoon all time high record was 2,610 tundra swans!

Photo by Arlene Koziol