This is not a great photo, but it is a photo! For the last week a single Tundra Bean-Goose has been hanging out with Canada Geese at the lakes, farm ponds, and corn fields around Lamoni Iowa. This week is the first time ever this goose has been spotted in the state of Iowa. It should be in Northern Europe or Northern Russia so it is thousands of miles away from home. I finally spotted it yesterday.

Birdwatchers and photographers have come from all over Iowa, as well as Missouri, Nebraska, Kansas, Minnesota, Ohio, and Arkansas to take advantage of this rare opportunity.

As you can see, it is smaller than a Canada Goose. It has a plain brown head and an orange stripe around its beak. Yesterday morning it was west of Lamoni and early in the afternoon it was at Lake LaShane northwest of Lamoni. Then it arrived at Big G Lake east of Lamoni late yesterday afternoon which is where I photographed it. 

Tundra Bean Goose and Canada Geese, Big G Lake, Lamoni Iowa. Original, uncropped photo.

I used a Canon 100-400mm lens on a cropped sensor camera body which gave me an effective focal length of 640mm. Even at that it was pretty small in the original photo.

Photo Data:  Canon 7D Mark II camera, Canon 10-400mm lens at 400mm, f/8.0, 1/80 second, ISO 3200.