We are looking forward to hosting the Waterfowl Ecology class from UW - Stevens Point on April 9th. The class plans to spend much of the day observing and discussing waterfowl, and wetlands management at Goose Pond. Their professor Ben Sedinger, the Kennedy-Grohne Chair Waterfowl and Wetlands Conservation, is also looking forward to preparing lunch for everyone.
Incredible waterfowl watching at Goose Pond. Photo by Monica Hall
We thought it would be interesting to look at the high counts for the 36 species of waterfowl (ducks, geese, and swans) on our Goose Pond bird list. There may have been some high counts that we missed but with the use of computers and bird watchers entering their data on eBird it was easy to click on the hotspot for Goose Pond and select “high count”. There have been 3,500 checklists from Goose Pond entered on eBird. About 1 in a 100 checklists included a high count of waterfowl. Thanks to all the lead reporters and birders with them for conducting the counts. Special thanks to Bill Hillsenhoff and David Willard who kept excellent records from their observations in the 1960s and 1970s and later entered them on eBird.
Ten of the high counts for species were before the many of the waterfowl students were born. Six of the records are from this decade and 10 were from 2015-2019 during the Wisconsin Breeding Bird Atlas II. It is not surprising that over one third of the records were from 2019 and 2020 since the record high water at Goose Pond in the past 50 years was in 2019 and high levels remained into 2020. More water translated into more waterfowl.
It is also not surprising that Mark and Sue entered a third of high counts considering that we moved to Goose Pond in 1979 and counted waterfowl hundreds of times. For two years in the 1980’s there was a family of five Orinoco Goose, a duck that looks like a goose and hence the name “Goose”, that was present for two summers. Orinocos are missing from the list since record keepers believe they could have escaped or been released from a “game farm.” We googled “Orinoco Geese for sale” and found a game farm in Michigan that sells Orinocos for $600 a bird.
An interesting note is that the Fulvous Whistling-Duck, found by Bill Mueller in 1989 is in the Goose family. That record is the only record on the 2020 WSO bird list.
Fulvous Whistling-Duck (photo taken in Illinois). Photo by Andy Reago & Chrissy McClarren
Wind and water can influence the number of birds visiting Goose Pond in migration. It is interesting to see spring high count records for 2017 for Snow Geese (1,730), Ross’s Geese (105), Brant (the second observation of a bird at Goose Pond (the first Brant was from 2000), Canada Geese (7,500), and Mute Swans (5). We will never forget the spring of 2017 with all the birds and all the bird watchers that entered 70 eBird sightings of the Brant from March 30-April 16!
In 2000 and 2017 Goose Pond birders on one day could check off six species of geese at Goose Pond. We mentioned to Professor Sedinger that “Goose Pond may be the only place in North America where one could observe six species of geese at one time.” Ben replied, “I’ve spent a lot of time on the Yukon Kuskokwim Delta on the west Coast of Alaska where the breeding bird densities are among the highest in the world but there were only 4 goose species up there… 6 species at once is impressive! I’d venture to guess that you might be right about 6 species at once – that is awesome.”
Five species of geese in one photo: Species Geese,Brant, Ross's, Cackling, Snow, Canada — all at Goose Pond. Photo by Arlene Koziol
December 1 and 2, 2019 were also memorable days when we counted record numbers of Tundra Swans (2,610) and Mallards (12,500).
For years we wondered when the first Cinnamon Teal would visit Goose Pond. At our cabin near Rio in April of 2014 we had a drake Cinnamon Teal present in a two acre restored wetland for about 10 days and thought that if a Cinnamon Teal could find this small wetland that one would eventually visit Goose Pond. Last year we were pleasantly surprised that Carol Berglund reported two drakes at the Goose Pond on April 18. Unfortunately, they were only reported for one day.
What is the next species of waterfowl to be added to the Goose Pond bird list? According to the Wisconsin Society for Ornithology Checklist of the Birds of Wisconsin 2020 there are 45 waterfowl species found in Wisconsin. Missing from our list under the heading of Geese and Swans is the Black-bellied Whistling-Duck (casual - at least 1 record every five years) and under the Ducks is the Garganey (accidental - only 1 record in Wisconsin), Tufted Duck (accidental), King Eider (casual), Common Eider (7 records), Surf Scoter (regular), Barrow’s Goldeneye (casual), Smew (accidental), and Masked Duck (accidental). Our bet is on the Surf Scoter and Barrow’s Goldeneye as the next species to be added to the bird list.
Abundance of waterfowl at Goose Pond. Photo by Arlene Koziol
Thanks to everyone for entering all their observations on eBird. We look forward to seeing what the next waterfowl species might be on the Goose Pond bird list.
Written by Mark Martin and Susan Foote-Martin, Goose Pond Sanctuary resident managers
