A Nice Day to Explore Northern Franklin County

I linked up with a fellow birder this weekend to poke around northern Franklin County, and we began at the Malone Memorial Recreation Park. As I was approaching Malone from the south, I saw line after line of geese flying in towards the park - the birds evidently arriving after a night feeding on the nearby farm fields or perhaps a night of migrating south out of Canada. It appeared our timing would be good. I arrived to watch more and more lines of both Canada and Snow Geese settle down onto the large pond at the center of the park, and we began to pick through them for less common species.

Searching Through the Geese

We immediately spotted Mallards, and Common and Hooded Mergansers, but those weren't the species for which we were hoping. We scanned through skein upon skein of geese but still only came up with Canadas and Snows. So we moved a short distance down the road to a small gazebo which overlooks the lake from a more easterly direction. With the sun at our backs we sifted through the honking white mass of Snow Geese and I quickly found our first Ross's Goose of the day. It was followed soon after by a second Ross's Goose, and while we wanted to keep looking for more, we decided to drive up the road so we could check out the Franklin County Landfill for gulls which may be attracted to the activity there. Only birders would go to a landfill and hope to see something cool!

The landfill was largely quiet - it is still early in the season for many species of gulls - but we had a large collection of Ring-billed and Herring Gulls as well as a Great Black-backed Gull - not always an easy bird to find in Franklin County. We moved up through Fort Covington and began birding along the roads which cut along or through the Mohawk lands where a network of brushy fields and wetlands line the way. We drove a couple loops starting along Drum Street and found a Northern Harrier, a few Rusty Blackbirds, and a nice Merlin which sat puffed up in the wind - and yet vigilant at the same time - along a tree line. We eventually looped back to Fort Covington (here's a fun little blog about this northern town!)  where my friend had to leave and I turned south to check out the farm fields near Malone.

Field Birds and then...More Geese

I drove along a collection of farm-lined roads where I found a Northern Harrier and some Wild Turkeys along County Route 8 (also called Fay County Road), and a Red-tailed Hawk along Wheeler Road. Otherwise things were fairly quiet. A brief stop at the Malone-Dufort Airport for field birds yielded only a few distant Turkey Vultures, but our wintering field birds are only just arriving. Species like Snow Buntings will be here soon.

As I drove, I was watching lines of geese heading out into the fields - and flocks of them feeding in the distance - so I decided to see what was left at the Malone Memorial Rec Park. There were a few thousand geese still there when I returned. Most of the Snow Geese were on the far side of the water and having found Ross's earlier, I scanned through the Canada Geese instead for something odd mixed with them. About two weeks earlier a Greater White-fronted Goose had been found with the Canadas there. While I did not re-find the White-fronted Goose (which is probably still in the area), I did spot a diminutive Cackling Goose with the Canadas, its tiny size, smaller, more rounded head, and stubby bill giving it away. That gave me 4 goose species at the park that day with a fifth likely still in the neighborhood.

Just as I was taking my eyes off the Cackling to scan another portion of the flock, a man came quietly up to me and asked, "Do you know what these all are? We've found a goose that looks like a Canada Goose, but it's significantly smaller." I laughed and explained about Cackling Geese and how I was just looking at one. We walked over to the playground to where he and his daughter had seen the second goose. It took a few minutes, but sure enough, they had found another Cackling Goose! It always pays for birders to pay attention to what non-birders are watching!

I remained there scanning through the flock for a while longer as strings of geese continued to lift off the water to head to the fields for the night. In one line I had a nice look at a Ross's Goose - perhaps one of the individuals we had seen that morning. I finally tired of picking through geese and as the water thinned of birds I loaded up my gear and headed home. I'll be back another day.

Fall is a nice time to bird the Malone area with the Rec Park and its impressive numbers of geese as the focal point. Learn more about the annual snow geese spectacle, check out our outdoor recreation, dining, and lodging pages and plan your trip today!