I was still an hour away from the Chestertown location when I kindly
received a text message from Tyler Bell reporting that the bird was on the
Chester River, visible from the boat ramp. I arrived at 8:45 and found nine
birders eyeing the bird through scopes. It was a long way away in shallow
water next to a fallen snag. Sometimes it was invisible, sometimes it popped
its head up, other times it was possible to see the whole bird. There were
a lot of Canada Geese around, mostly obscuring the bird.
At about 10 AM the bird flew 100 feet or so upstream to a spot in front of
a pier. It swam around here for perhaps fifteen minutes. At 10:15, it
took off .with about ten Canadas, lifted up and flew over the tree line. It
landed in the field to the East of Buckingham Rd, only a quarter mile (or
less) from the river. There were probably close to a hundred Canadas in the
field also.
Before long, as multiple birders were gazing at the Barnacle vigorously
feeding in the grass, a pickup truck came to the west, directly towards us and
I anticipated some trouble. All the geese flew. Turns out this was the
caretaker of the property and he was a pleasant, mellow fellow who chatted
with birders and revealed that the bird has been around for awhile. He also
joked that he could charge admission and several of the birders told him
that we would pay! After chatting for awhile, he went back through the gate
and drove away, being careful not to flush the geese again, which, by this
time had landed in the same spot.
I stayed until about 11 AM. The birds remained fairly far out, so the
resulting images, even with my 600mm are not super sharp. See my Facebook
page at:
_http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.281925665199771.66279.100001470182
044&type=3&saved#!/profile.php?id=100001470182044_
(http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.281925665199771.66279.100001470182044&type=3&saved#!/profil
e.php?id=100001470182044)
Bob Mumford
Darnestown
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