Christmas Goose

The Pink-Footed Goose is a cold-weather bird. They breed in Greenland and Iceland, and they winter in northern Europe and Britain. The field guides say that it's an extremely rare vagrant in North America (for example the online Audubon guide: "Strays that have gone the wrong direction have been found in North America only a couple of times, in eastern Canada"), but since about 2011 they've been increasingly common, and there are several in the New York City area at the moment.

One of them is in Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx, and I went to see it on Friday.

Pink-Footed Goose for Christmas!

I may have mentioned this before, but as a rule, if you're looking for a reported rare bird, look for the birders before you look for the bird. When I got to Van Cortlandt Park--a straight shot up the to the end of the #1 IRT subway line--I spotted people with scopes on the Parade Ground, scanning a huge flock of Canada Geese. This saved me from having to circle the flock myself--there had been warnings online about how shy and nervous this goose flock was. You don't want to be the bozo who flushes the rare birds.

Anyway, the scope owners turned out to be NY birding luminaries Gail Benson and Tom Burke, and they kindly gave me looks through their scopes at the Pink-Footed Goose and also a young Snow Goose in the flock.

I moved on to nearby Van Cortlandt Lake, where there was said to be a Cackling Goose and a Northern Pintail duck.

Swans always lend a touch of elegance

Most of the Lake was frozen over, so there were a lot of waterfowl crowded into a small area of open water at the south end. A pair of Mute Swans brightened up the scene, and a phlegmatic Great Blue Heron perched on a branch over the water only a few feet from the path along the west shore.

Imperturbable

The birds on the open water included lot of Canada Geese and Mallards, several Shovelers, one American Black Duck, one Pied-Billed Grebe, and a few Ruddy Ducks.

Ruddy Duck stretching out

Eventually I found the Northern Pintail, a drake. From a distance he was quite handsome, but when I saw him close up he was a bit scruffy. Well, it's winter.

contemplative Pintail

The Cackling Goose never appeared--at least I saw no notably small Canada-type geese--and I eventually headed back to the Parade Ground to see if perhaps I might get a closer look at the Pink-Footed Goose.

There were at least a thousand geese on the Parade Ground when I arrived but almost immediately half of them were put to flight by a single large dog some schmuck decided to let run through Dogs are not allowed on the Parade Ground, by the way, and there are prominent signs to that effect. However, many dog owners consider themselves to be special beings not subject to rules. I will admit it was somehow inspiring to watch fine hundred geese rise up in a body, circle, and fly off.

Goooooooooal!

A single crow stayed behind around the.southernmost soccer nets. There remained a large body of geese at the extreme north end of the field. These geese proved to be not shy or nervous at all. As I approached, I watched two kids passing a soccer ball back and forth going south along the east edge of the flock without disturbing the birds at all. Then an oblivious young man talking on a cell phone walked right through the middle of the flock; the birds near him walked out of his way, but they didn't even honk at him.

There's no gooses like Snow Gooses

I spotted the Snow Goose first, near the edge of the flock at the north end. I walked around to the west side, staying only about ten yards away; the birds didn't pay any attention at all to me. Finally I saw the brown head of the Pink-Footed Goose, also very close by, and I was able to get some nice photos of the rarity.

Very cooperative

And so I got my Christmas goose. The Pink-Footed Goose was a life bird for me, my 280th species. Happy holidays to you all!

New Year birding, and the last of the Painted Bunting

As is my habit, I spent the first couple of days of the New Year birding Central Park and Randall's Island. Mostly I was trying to clean up as many usual species as possible--eBird's "Year Needs" list can get pretty unwieldy in January if I don't.

Sunday I went out to Prospect Park in Brooklyn to look for the Black-Headed Gull I had dipped on in December. But of course I had to look in on the Painted Bunting before circling the Lake to scan the gulls.

He was near the northeast wall of the Lefrak Center, very near where he was in early December when I visited last. Having paid my regards, I went off to the Lake. The gulls mostly like the west end of the Lake, and I was starting on the east end, but it wasn't a dull walk.

In Central Park, you mostly see waterbirds like this Ruddy Duck from a greater distance or from above (when you circle the Reservoir, you're always looking down on the water) or most often both. Prospect Park Lake is nice because you can see them come in close to share and you're right down on the ground for a good low view.

Anyway, eventually I came upon a photographer at the west edge of the Lake who was packing up, and he pointed out the Black-Headed Gull to me. I watched it for a while, then it took off suddenly.

It flew past me, and I had the impression it hadn't gone too far, so I continued along the shore until I found a family feeding the ducks. And the swans, and the gulls. That explained the sudden take-off.

I was able to pass on the favor the photographer had done me to a couple of passing birders, so I wasn't the only one to get the Black-Headed Gull as a life bird that day.

On my way out of the park, I passed the Lefrak Center again. I saw the Painted Bunting get flushed by some idiot walking through the shrubbery--not a birder of photographer as far as I could see.

Anyway, the bird didn't go far, and actually spent some time in a more open area in better light, and so I got the nice pictures you see here. Eventually the Bunting returned to the denser shrubs along the wall.

That appears to have been the last day the Painted Bunting was seen. There were only a couple of eBird reports from Prospect Park on Monday, and they don't have it, and there were several on Tuesday again with no result.

If the bird was gone on Monday, that's actually fairly hopeful. Monday night wasn't too bad, so it might mean that he felt the cold coming in that evening and finally decided to fly south. If he was around Monday and people just missed him, that could be bad; most likely that would be because he was hunkered down against the cold and wind we had Monday--a bird actively feeding before flying out would have been easier to spot. Monday night was bitter, down into the single digits (F), possibly colder than any member of that species had ever experienced. That might have killed him. Either way, we'll almost certainly never know.