Honk!

Chinese  Goose(domestic)

It's interesting how one area attracts several kinds of birds.  Today I stroll on the dirty side and head to Kennedy park.  In fact, while cropping my photos, I noticed water bottles and other trash items around the area.  I was in search of the Offspray .....I mean the Osprey.  Apparently this rare bird in our area has been hanging around this manmade lake for some time.

Graylag Goose shaking it up a bit:)

I drove into the parking lot and saw lots of people having dinner at the various picnic tables.  There was also some fishing going on....I like to call it the lake of make believe dreams.  It's all artificial but you might go just to think you live in a water area.  You'll see boaters on this small "pond" and people hoping to make a catch.  The "lake" is stocked:)

It's not one of my favorite places to visit and to be honest, it has been some time since I last visited.....we're talking years here. What is shocking was that there were different birds here than in other spots around Tucson which is a testiment to us all that each area is special and unique.  Mess with that micro habitat and they're gone. On a post awhile back, I wrote about Woodpeckers and how I saw many of them in one day.  Well the same thing happened to me today again....but this time with geese!!  I had NO idea that geese even stopped over here. I counted 4 different geese in the area.  FOUR! Two I've never seen before.

The geese controlled the pond....I mean lake.....and were very territorial.  The ducks followed them wherever they went. There was the Greylag, Canadian, Chinese, and something else.....one of each except the Greylags in which there were 3.  All were domestic. But not the Canadian.

I had heard the unmistakeable "HONK HONK!" and traced the sources.

I was given the heads up by another birder that some of them have cross bred.  Interesting.

So while I didn't find the Osprey, I did see several birds to add to my list for the year.

I think Geese are fascinating....the different colors and behavior patterns make them interesting to watch.  In the upcoming weeks, I have some very special photo shoots that will focus on Birds of Prey.  Before each post is released at midnight, I go over my write for the next day to make sure it's all ready to go without spelling errors.  Sometimes I miss a word or two:)  But it's always a treat to revisit my experiences at the various places.  This was a fun shoot at "the lake" in Kennedy Park:)

Greylag Goose