Ross’s Goose, Ellington, CT, January 2016

I was on my way back home from a business trip when I got a call from CT birder Mark Szantyr that a Ross’s Goose was found that day in CT.  It was only the third CT state record for this species, and CT was the New England last state where I needed Ross’s.  So I really wanted to get this bird.  The challenge was I had heavy commitments at home, and at best had only a small window to chase after it in 2 days. 

The key question was – would it stick around?  The bird was first found in the afternoon swimming in a mill pond with many Canada Geese.  The next day it was reported in the same mill pond but only in the early morning.  After that it and most of the other geese flew off to points unknown.  But thankfully the goose flock was re-found a couple miles away feeding in a corn field.  Amazingly, Pink-footed and White-fronted were also found in with the Canadas – but I didn’t need those two for my CT list.  The Ross’s stayed with that flock during the day, and then all the birds left and headed back to the mill pond that afternoon.  So it looked like the target bird had a routine – roosting on the pond late afternoon, overnight , and early morning, then feeding in a nearby cornfield during the day.

The next day was my only chance to try for the Ross’s so I was happy to see an early morning post that the Ross’s was in the mill pond.  And then a late morning post came across that it was now feeding in its favorite cornfield.  With that confirmation I started my 1 hr 45 min ride to Ellington.  Although typically I prefer at least a little bit of a search when pursuing a new statebird (I’ve always said an hour of searching time might be ideal), this time I was hoping to see the bird right away given my limited availability.  I crossed my fingers that when I arrived there would be a birder or two at the spot, and ideally on the bird. 

As I got close to the field I could see at least a dozen cars pulled over on the side of the road.  And there were maybe 20 birders with scopes pointed toward the cornfield.  Within seconds I had parked the car and walked scope in hand over to the birders.  Quickly I had confirmation that they had the bird in the field, though it wasn’t visible at the time.  I started to scan the field and was blown away by the number of Canadas – maybe 4,000-5,000 birds.  Since I was looking for a white goose in a sea of dark geese and dark soil, you would think the bird would really stand out.  But the smaller Ross’s can easily hide behind a larger Canada.  Plus there were some small dips in the field that concealed some of the birds.  I figured out the direction everyone was looking, and stared intently into the Canadas in that area.  Within a minute I caught a glimpse of white, and then the bird walked out into the open, albeit briefly.  Success!  The bird was very distant, and not very cooperative, but I got this phonescoped photo of the bird among the Canadas –

Ross’s Goose was number 326 for me in CT, and the 239th species that I’ve seen in each New England state.  And CT is the 29th state where I’ve seen this expanding species.