Brave-ish Heart

 

Rusty Blackbird, one of the nice birds we found

I dug deep into my heart to find the blood of my Scottish ancestors,  hoping to gather the strength to be bold. Then we  consulted maps and bravely headed off to Scotia on Sunday. To those who might think this is a terrifying accomplishment, Scotia is about 26 miles from here, a little over half an hour's drive.

However, Scotia is dum, da, dum, dum....a CITY! The place we wanted to go in hot pursuit of the recently visiting Ross's Goose is in a CITY!!! park.

We set out as soon as we dropped Becky off for work, which I quickly discovered, via actually reading the time stamps on the eBird lists featuring the bird, was a mistake.

See, the goose had been being seen in the afternoon and it was morning. Oh, well, I didn't notice until we were well on the way so we went anyhow. Turned out it was an easy drive, we found the place quickly, it was calm and pleasantly quiet, and well....really pretty nice. Didn't feel like a city at all.

The terrifying cityscape at Quinlan Park where the goose was visiting

Before I had been out of the car for even five minutes, I heard a strange sounding goose flying overhead. I knew it was something different than the normal Canada Geese. Merlin said Cackling Goose and so did its appearance, small, short neck, almost invisible bill. 

Cool, a rare bird. Before we left I had seen 23 species, including some other fairly unusual birds.

Alas, no Ross's Goose.

However, later in the day a prominent birder, who is also a really nice guy, posted that the goose was at the park. The boss said, "Let's go!" and so we did.

End result, another life bird, number 266, which doesn't make me big year material, but makes me pretty happy anyhow. Also two rare bird alert birds in one day. Downright cool.

Sometimes it's good to strike out boldly where no man.... dozens of other birders, have gone before. 

The best of my abysmal Ross's Goose photos.