BIRDQUEST2004

Picture this…

Up at 3:45am, get in the car, grab a coffee at Tim’s.  Drive 242km to a place south of Montreal called Saint-Jean-Sur-Richelieu.  Arrive at the spot and its still dark, all you can hear is the honking of Canada Geese.  Sun starts coming up, there are at least 5000 geese,  scannning back and forth with spotting scope, I hope to see a Barnacle Goose.

This goose had eluded me over the last 2 years, 6 times.

The geese start slowly lifing off, (after a night on the water its time to head to the fields for food).  At first its, 5’s and 10’s at first, then 20-30, then 100 at a time…I try to check each one as they go by.  The sick feeling in my stomach that this is going to be # 7, fewer and fewer geese on the water.  Now there’s only about a thousand left, scan them again, no luck.

Then I see a group of 100 geese lift up and their coming right at me, binoculars up, Canada, Canada, Canada, then something different catches my eye, a warm glow come’s over me…..Gotcha…a beautiful Barnacle Goose (flying in formation) for my list.

Damn forgot I had my camera.  Little to worry about, I have lots of photo from other trips.

That what drives all birders and fuels our passion…when you see that new bird on our home turf…

Photos below were taken in Inverness, Scotland

Ciao for now

I had the pleasure of visiting the Alberta Birds of Prey Centre outside of Lethbridge, Alberta.  You can get up close to many of the large birds but not all, with no fences or mesh in the way, making it ideal for photography.

They have just about every eagle, hawk, falcon and owl on display, although, again I stress, not all out of them are out of their cages.

This is the link to their site:   www.coaldalechamber.com

Below are some of the profiles I was able to photograph and a very lucky person.