3 Pink footed Geese in Amherst!

Pink Footed Geese, UMASS, Amherst, MA, Oct 3, 2023

Pink Footed Geese, UMASS, Amherst, MA, Oct 3, 2023

Pink Footed Geese, UMASS, Amherst, MA, Oct 3, 2023

Pink Footed Geese, UMASS, Amherst, MA, Oct 3, 2023

Pink Footed Geese, UMASS, Amherst, MA, Oct 3, 2023

I certainly did not expect to be looking at three Pink footed Geese on the UMASS campus pond on an 80+ degree afternoon on October 3rd but that is exactly what came to pass today.  I was doing some yard work and got a text around 2:30 from Kalpesh mentioning that Matt McKenna just found three Pink footed Geese at the pond.  He quickly followed it up with some photos and the ID was correct.  I decided to make the drive over to see if I could connect with them.  I arrived to find the campus alive with activity with lots of people enjoying the warm weather and I was afraid the geese may have moved on.  I walked down toward the pond and saw Al looking at the pond from his car and he said he just had them in view so I started scanning and found them right away in among the Canada Geese.  I snapped off some photos and then texted a few more people to make sure they knew about the birds.  An incredible find and amazingly early for the species to show in the northeast.  It is the earliest record ever for the state (with a couple records late in October).  I didn't want to linger too long at the pond as I didn't want to get a parking ticket.  More photos can be found in the following Flickr album here. 

A little history of the species in Hampshire County is certainly in order.  I found the first Hampshire County record back on March 23, 2014 when a single showed up among other geese in a farm field on the Hatfield/Whately town line.  I also managed to find the second county record with another single on December 6, 2016 in a farm field in North Hadley (that bird made its way to the campus pond later on the same date).  The next record of the species occurred in early January last year when Mary found two along the Connecticut River.  Later in 2022 I found another single bird on March 12 on the Hadley/Amherst line.  Many of these earlier records lingered in the area for at least a few days so hopefully history will repeat itself and more will get to see these rare geese from the north.

It is a review species in the state (Massachusetts Avian Records Committee) so getting good documentation is always a good idea.