Nature Note: A Naturalist's Travels Through Nature

Photo courtesy of Wikipedia "Komito was stupefied. After all his wild-goose chases–the days in the sleet in Alaska, the hours in the summer stench of the Salton Sea, the nights among the border swimmers on the Rio Grande–his hunt for the pink-footed goose was over in thirty seconds. The only way he could describe his feelings was to use a word that, until this point, had been alien to his vocabulary. He felt guilty." It's amazing how fast a chase can be over when you're in the right place, at the right time. As Sandy Komito's 1998 Big Year experience illustrates in his search for the Pink-footed Goose ( Anser brachyrhynchos ), this happens every once in a while in the birding world. Now I have my own experience to draw on with regards to a nemesis bird that I've been chasing since the beginning of fall migration last year. As of this Tuesday, I've finally slayed the king of waterfowl (metaphorically of course). After several misadventures with altern...

 The Canvasback ( Aythya valisineria ) has been showing up in Massachusetts over the past few months. They have mainly shown up in traditional spots such as Fresh Pond and Jamaica Pond, but also in others like Plum Island, Acushnet, and Pope John Paul II Park. But even as I search those areas, I always seem to be coming up with nothing. It seems like they either aren't there or I miss them by a few days. The same seemed to be happening when I couldn't find Lincoln's Sparrow ( Melospiza lincolnii ) and Rusty Blackbird ( Euphagus carolinus ) but eventually I did come across them. In the mean time, I'm happy to report that I got to see the King Eider ( Someteria spectabilis ) up near Salt Island off of Good Harbor Beach in Gloucester. While it was a distant speck amongst the Common Eiders ( S. mollisima ) it was associating with. I could barely tell what it was, but the extra black on the back separated this adult male from the more piebald males. Had it been a female ...