In ten years I have never seen a Greater White-Fronted Goose in the Duluth area … only much further west during their Spring migration. Whether it was strong westerly winds, or a bad sense of direction, Greater-White Fronted Geese have shown up along the North Shore of Lake Superior. Our cold lake should make them feel at home … almost the Arctic Ocean which is where they breed each summer!

I became informed about these birds because I have a free eBird account and subscribe to county wide rare bird alerts for St. Louis, Lake and Douglas Counties. These three counties cover the head of the lakes, a bit of the way up the shore, and north through the Boreal Forest to the Canadian Border.

Subscribing to any county in the United States is easy. Create a free eBird account and  then perform a Google search on the desired county names. I normally include the words “eBird” “Alert” and the abbreviation for the desired state such as “Mn” for Minnesota. Across the USA there are many counties with identical names. I have no desire to subscribe to alerts for other “Lake Counties” across America. There are many.

Here are two annotated screenshots for Lake County

And of course, the Greater-White Fronted Geese which I saw this morning on the Two Harbors Golf Course. Amazingly the ponds are ice free on this March 9th, and have been for days. Waterfowl are quick to find ice free ponds.