A Needle In A Snowstack
November 11th, 2015
Today I was treated to what was probably my finest mega-rarity yet: a bird that is here in Ontario for the first time in recorded history! It's called a Pink-Footed Goose, breeds in Iceland and Greenland, and somehow ended up travelling with a migrant flock all the way to North America.
This bird is a 1 in 100,000 (literally) needle in a haystack, part of a flock of tens of thousands of migrating Snow Geese massed in the fields near Casselman. And that is a spectacle I had never seen before, either--thousands, yes, but not tens of thousands. It gave me a fresh appreciation for why they're called Snow Geese. On the ground, they cluster so densely they look like a layer of snow. In the air, they look like a blizzard.
I joined a group of about ten other birders on Lafleche Road near Highway 138, all scanning the flock with scopes. They actually had the bird in sight when I arrived, but before I could get it in my sights, the entire flock spooked, took to the air, swirled around and finally landed again, shuffling the deck. (Just to keep things interesting, they typically shuffle the deck like that every half hour or so.)
After an hour of fruitless searching I was about to give up. Then I saw Tony Beck arrive and figured, well, if anyone is going to find it, it's going to be him. So I texted my husband and told him I might be back late, blew some warm air onto my hands, and settled back in. And a half hour later I watched an unmistakable Pink-Footed Goose plowing his way through the snowy multitudes!
No pictures today, but I promise to take the camera back up soon. Speaking of snow-white creatures, I'm hoping to photograph an ermine this winter...
November 11th, 2015
Today I was treated to what was probably my finest mega-rarity yet: a bird that is here in Ontario for the first time in recorded history! It's called a Pink-Footed Goose, breeds in Iceland and Greenland, and somehow ended up travelling with a migrant flock all the way to North America.
This bird is a 1 in 100,000 (literally) needle in a haystack, part of a flock of tens of thousands of migrating Snow Geese massed in the fields near Casselman. And that is a spectacle I had never seen before, either--thousands, yes, but not tens of thousands. It gave me a fresh appreciation for why they're called Snow Geese. On the ground, they cluster so densely they look like a layer of snow. In the air, they look like a blizzard.
I joined a group of about ten other birders on Lafleche Road near Highway 138, all scanning the flock with scopes. They actually had the bird in sight when I arrived, but before I could get it in my sights, the entire flock spooked, took to the air, swirled around and finally landed again, shuffling the deck. (Just to keep things interesting, they typically shuffle the deck like that every half hour or so.)
After an hour of fruitless searching I was about to give up. Then I saw Tony Beck arrive and figured, well, if anyone is going to find it, it's going to be him. So I texted my husband and told him I might be back late, blew some warm air onto my hands, and settled back in. And a half hour later I watched an unmistakable Pink-Footed Goose plowing his way through the snowy multitudes!
No pictures today, but I promise to take the camera back up soon. Speaking of snow-white creatures, I'm hoping to photograph an ermine this winter...
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dagibbs
November 11th, 2015 at 10:13 pm
That is awesome!
Mike
November 12th, 2015 at 8:53 am
Congrats!