Wild Goose Chase

Quite literally...

Some of you may be aware of the recent sightings of a Barnacle Goose in Schomberg, in York county. Barnacle Geese hail from Europe, and are rare vagrants to Ontario. Since Barnacle Geese are popular aviary birds, it was long thought that many of the birds were escapees, and many record committees had the mentality of "escapee until proven otherwise." It wasn't until recently, within the last couple years, that people started to realize that many of the records could actually be legitimate vagrants. If you want to read more in depth, I would definitely recommend checking out this article.

Since Barnacle Geese are so rare, I couldn't let this bird get away, especially since it was relatively close (usually Ottawa gets all the rare geese!) So yesterday afternoon, my mom, my aunt, and I made the two and a half hour drive to the Schomberg sewage lagoons.

When first arrived we were met with unhappy looking birders...uh oh...

Sure enough, the Barnacle Goose was nowhere in sight.

I figured that the geese would probably come to spend the night at the lagoons, so I decided to wait and see if any showed up. It wasn't long until a huge flock, perhaps 400, Canada Geese showed up.

With them....the Barnacle Goose!

We watched the goose for the next 40 minutes or so. Certainly worth the drive!

March Break has been awesome so far!