Greylag

I love to see this Greylag goose, which lives with a flock of resident Canadas down by the state canal building in Fonda. It has been with them for at least five years.

The Greylag goose is a European breed, as well as a common barnyard fowl, said to be the foundation breed for most domestic geese.

They seem to hybridize fairly frequently with Canadas but I have never noticed any crossbreds in the little flock of half a dozen that this one lives with.

Yesterday, probably because I needed photos of floating things for Sunday Stills, the little flock was combined with this larger one, and not one single one was in the river when we went down by the state canal building to take pics. 

What a mess they leave on the grass, and they have almost no fear of people. A few of them stood up when I walked down near the water, and there was a bit of sporadic honking, but mostly they just kept an eye on me as they went about the business of resting in the sun.

We went to the new Fultonville dock and river access area too. That is really nice! I hope it is still open and accessible after the water is let out of the dams...at least the upper part anyhow. It would make a nice place to view the masses of gulls, geese, diving and puddle ducks, eagles, crows, ravens, and other birds that frequent the shallows in front of McDonald's when the water is down.

How I would love to be able to safely put the binoculars on that flock!

 It always frustrates the heck out of me not to be able to photograph the wonderful aggregation of birds that congregates there, because of the danger of the highway running right next to the water.