8 Upper Valley birders spent last Saturday exploring Addison County, in
particular looking for the Snow Geese flocks that appear almost every fall.
We were not disappointed.
The Geese were right where we expected as soon as we arrived--we did a very
rough estimate of 3000 birds! After our fill of the geese we birded other
areas of Addison and found
good numbers and diversity of waterfowl. This part of the state is great
for those of us who can't get our fill of ducks and gulls on the
Connecticut River.

Many thanks to Pip Richens and the Mascoma Chapter of NH Audubon for
organizing this trip.

Spencer Hardy
Norwich, VT

48 Species:  *Snow Goose - apr. 3000, including at least 4 Blue Geese
 *Gadwall - 3  *American Wigeon - 2
 American Black Duck
 Mallard
 *Northern Pintail - at least 10
 Green-winged Teal - many  Lesser Scaup - 1  *Black Scoter - 15, all females
 *Long-tailed Duck - 3  Bufflehead - 4  Common Goldeneye - 5  *Ruddy Duck -
Several locations and groups of 1-5, great to see!
 Common Loon - At least 14 from Chimney point
 *Red-necked Grebe - 1  Double-crested Cormorant - Several
 Great Blue Heron - 1  Red-tailed Hawk - At almost every stop!
Northern Harrier - 2 or 3 seen from the cars
 *Rough-legged Hawk - Great views of a light morph along the road
 *American Coot - 2  *Bonaparte's Gull - At least 30 for the day
 Ring-billed Gull
 Herring Gull
 Great Black-backed Gull - At least 10 for the day
 Mourning Dove
 Pileated Woodpecker - 2  Blue Jay
 American Crow
 *Horned Lark - Most people got to see at least a couple on the ground,
then ~50 in flight
 Black-capped Chickadee
 White-breasted Nuthatch
 Brown Creeper - heard only
 American Robin  European Starling
 *American Pipit - Several flyovers of small groups while we watched the
geese
 *Lapland Longspur - 2 or 3 with the Larks, unfortunately very cooperative
 *Snow Bunting - One flock seen in flight of at least 150  American Tree
Sparrow
 *Fox Sparrow - 1 spotted by Peter Labelle
 White-throated Sparrow - 2
 Dark-eyed Junco - One bird with a bright white chin, but otherwise a
normal Slate-colored Junco
 Northern Cardinal  Red-winged Blackbird - Large flock feeding in a corn
field
 *Rusty Blackbird - 5+ with the Red-wings, seen by almost everyone
 Common Grackle - 2 with the blackbirds
 *White-winged Crossbill - 1 flyover, heard and seen. Hopefully a sign of
things to come
 American Goldfinch