LOOK UP: More than any year we can remember, tundra swans have
been passing over this area in their springtime migration.

Last Thursday, we got this note from Carol Zintz of Emporium:
“On Wednesday, I watched a huge, white bird fly over my yard. I was
amazed at its size. My first thought was – swan. But I didn’t know
of swans in this area. It was flying low so I got a good but quick
look at it.”

“Thanks to Thursday’s Bradford Era, I can confirm that it was a
swan from the picture on your front page of tundra swans on Hamlin
Lake. I researched the bird on the computer and discovered that
they winter along the southeast coast and migrate through this area
heading to their summer/breeding habitat in the far north.

“It was a real treat to this bird-lover’s eyes. A new bird to
add to my list of life sightings.”

Also on Thursday, we received photos from Angela Shipman taken
at McKean Memorial Park, Lafayette, of some baby geese.
Unfortunately, the pictures were a little too dark for us to
reproduce properly.

Angela reported that her dad, John Taylor, had taken the
pictures that morning. “A Mother and Father Canadian goose were
proudly showing off their new baby gosling! Swimming along in the
area of the ponds unfrozen waters! Now this must definitely be a
sign of spring! I didn’t even know geese had babies so early into
the new year! We are just guessing the little one looks about two
weeks old!”

We also heard from Jerry Kleisath of Preble, N.Y., last week:
“Noticed many people writing in about the geese. Here in New York,
about 20 miles south of Syracuse they seem to have been wintering
over. We see them when the farmers clean out their barns and
spread it on the fields. The geese line up for breakfast, ever in
zero degree weather. The 60 inches of snow doesn’t seem to bother
them.”

LOOK WAY UP: How do you tell local geese from migrators? A
spokesman for the Roger Tory Peterson center in Jamestown, N.Y.,
writes, “… just because you see geese in formation doesn’t
necessarily mean they’re migrating – they may only be traveling to
a local feeding area. Usually, low-flying geese are just locals
while high-flying geese are probably traveling greater
distances.”