Egyptian Geese in New Jersey

The Atlantic City Press noticed that there is a population of feral Egyptian Geese roaming the state of New Jersey. This species is a native of Africa, with introduced populations in Europe. So how did a free-flying population end up here? It may be by accident.

Egyptian geese did cause the birding community to wonder what was going on when they began turning up regularly across the state more than a decade ago. Could a flock somehow have been blown here from Africa by a storm?

Then one day, in September 1996, a bird watcher at Great Adventure amusement park in Jackson Township, Monmouth County, noticed a flock of more than 50 Egyptian geese there - without identifying leg bands. More important, they were flying, which meant their flight feathers weren't trimmed to keep them captive at the park.

Now it is assumed that the Egyptian geese in the state, wherever they turn up, probably came from the large, uncontrolled flock at Great Adventure.

California and Pennsylvania also have free-roaming Egyptian Geese. As the article mentions, Egyptian Geese have bred several times over the past several years in central New Jersey along the Raritan River. I have seen them several times at my local park, including the pair in the picture above, taken in November 2007. In summer the adults have been accompanied by goslings. I am not sure what their survival rate may be, or where the young birds go once (if?) they reach maturity.

Egyptian Geese always look a little out of place along the Raritan, as they are not closely related to our native geese. Instead, they are the only extant representatives of the genus, Alopochen, ranked among the shelduck subfamily rather than among the typical geese.

Will the Egyptian Goose become the next Monk Parakeet and secure a place on New Jersey's state list? Time will tell.

Upcoming Blog Carnivals

Three upcoming blog carnivals that may be of interest to readers of this blog have imminent deadlines.

First, I and the Bird submissions are due by the end of today, at Great Auk or Greatest Auk. Any blog posts related to wild birds or birding are welcome.

Second, GrrlScientist has been trying to revive the long-dormant Circus of the Spineless for several months, and recently announced a new edition to appear at her blog on April 6. Submissions for this carnival are due within the next week. Topics may include photos or essays on any type of invertebrate.

Third, the same blogger is starting a new carnival, Scientia, as a replacement to the equally dormant Tangled Bank, the oldest science and nature blogging carnival. The new carnival will appear on the first and third Mondays of each month, starting on April 6.

Mike Now Digiscoping at a New Location

Last week the server hosting Mike's Birding & Digiscoping Blog crashed during an upgrade, leaving the site inaccessible. After waiting several days for eHostSource to resolve the situation, Mike Dowell moved his blog to a new server and a new domain. Since the change occurred while the server is hosed, he is unable to post the new location on his old blog to alert his own readers, so I am posting an alert here.

The new address is: http://www.birddigiscoper.com/blog.html
New RSS feed: http://www.birddigiscoper.com/rss.xml

Mike runs a great bird blog, one of my long-time favorites. If you have not read his blog before, do take a look.

Cormorants on the Move

This afternoon I walked through my local park to see if any new birds had arrived in the past few days. Robins are still massing in the park, such that their songs and chuckles were echoing from all directions. The other birds present in large numbers were black birds. Many of the grackles and Red-winged Blackbirds that dominated the flocks several weeks ago seem to have moved on, and the larger flocks are now mostly European Starlings and Brown-headed Cowbirds. Well over 300 starlings were present this afternoon. Canada Geese and all gull species were well below their winter numbers.

As I walked along the river, eight Double-crested Cormorants flew downstream and landed in the river. These were among a dozen or so present, in addition to the usual single Great Cormorant, which has been sitting on the channel marker since late December. Lately this bird has been decked out in breeding plumage. These were the first Double-crested Cormorants I have seen on the river for several months, possibly since last year. I expect that fairly soon the Great Cormorant will move to a more suitable location for nesting.

Central Park Birding

Yesterday morning I went into New York with my non-birding sister who had some research to do. While she was busy with that, I went birding in Central Park, and then rejoined her later for some time at the Met. I ended up walking through about two-thirds of the park in the morning and the rest of it in the late afternoon.

I started off by scanning the buildings along 5th Avenue for Red-tailed Hawks. None were apparent at that time, but I saw several during the course of the walk. There were a few lone red-tails, but also one group of three and another obvious pair. Moving on, I encountered a small Swamp Sparrow flock in the lower lobe of the lake. This is one of my favorite sparrow species, so I sat and watched them forage in the muck. In the same area I also saw a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker and heard a few snatches of a Winter Wren's song.

Song was very noticeable, not just from the wren, but also from White-throated Sparrows, Song Sparrows, Northern Cardinals, and Dark-eyed Juncos. A lot of the white-throats were rather mangy-looking, especially around their heads. It seems that these birds were probably molting from basic to alternate plumage, which the Birds of North America describes as a partial molt of head and breast feathers. At least one white-throat appeared to have a almost bare head.

As I made my way north through the park, I checked out the reservoir, which had collections of Northern Shovelers, Buffleheads, and other water birds, all of which were too far to appreciate fully. Moving on, I encountered a Merlin around 95th St; the falcon flew out of the park and onto the top of a building across Central Park West. At the far north end, I spotted a beautiful pair of Wood Ducks and a small group of Ruddy Ducks on the Harlem Meer, and a Cooper's Hawk circling the hill above it.

I was a pleasant way to spend a morning, especially once the clouds lifted and the sun came out.