Leucistic Canada Goose, Photography by: Arlene Koziol

Eleven species of waterfowl were found at Goose Pond on November 10th. The highlight was seeing a rare leucistic goose. Leucism is a very unusual condition whereby the pigmentation cells in an animal or bird fail to develop properly. As always, mallards (3,000) and Canada geese (2,000) were the most numerous. The count of 41 tundra swans is low for the second week in November and will probably increase when winter weather hits North Dakota. Ring-necked ducks (131) and pintails (51) are easy to find. Sandhill crane numbers have been around 80 for the past six weeks. See the table for other numbers. Also seen were three northern harriers hunting the uplands around the pond and one adult bald eagle that was duck hunting.

To enlarge the data table please click on the icon at the bottom right-hand of the spreadsheet.