On The Wing #62: Pacifically Speaking
What are you doing in New Jersey? When it comes to rarities, nothing is better than seeing a bird so out of place, it boggles the mind on how on earth it got there. That's how I felt as I spied a Pacific Loon ( Gavia pacifica ) sitting in the middle of an industrial park pond in Morris Plains, NJ at around noon today. I would've been even more pleased if I had taken pictures of it as well (It was literally 50 feet away!! -_-;;), but I'm happy to have added another lifer to my list. As I said in my posting about finding my first wild Canvasback ( Aythya valisaneria ) in Carver, MA, I quoted Sandy Komito's reaction to finding the Pink-footed Goose ( Anser brachyrhynchos ) he'd worked so long and hard to find. It was over so quickly that he literally felt guilty about how hard he'd worked to find it. Needless to say, like Komito, it was an easy bird to find. It had stayed in the same area for about a week and seemed content on moving back and forth from the i...