Having exhausted the list of birds we wanted to find in Florida, we moved our flight to Boston to one day earlier, to allow more time for chasing some of the unusual birds that are being reported here in the Northeast.
The bird upon which we set our sights is the same bird that ended the movie The Big Year: the Pink-footed Goose. A report had rolled down the pipes of the Interwebs just a few days ago that one of these geese was found in Connecticut, just outside of Hartford. Until the 1990s, this was an extremely rare vagrant to North America, and while the frequency of reports has increased in the past 20 years, there are usually only a few that show up across the entire continent in a year. So, we gotta get it!
Our flight to Boston landed at 5pm, and it turns out that leaving Boston-Logan at rush hour is a rotten idea. We decided to pull over for the night in Worcester, which it turns out is pronounced "Woostah" for reasons probably dating back to William Shakespeare. Despite this flaw, there's a fantastic pub in town: Armsby Abbey is highly recommended.
The next morning, we headed straight for the park where the goose had been seen, and pulled into the parking lot along with two other cars, both of which contained birders on the same chase.
We all walked to the area where the reports directed us, and then started scanning the approximately 2500 Canada Geese for one little Pinkie.
Which one of these is not like the other?
Didn't see it? How about now?
OK, those were a little unfair because while the goose is there, its head is tucked under a wing, so it's very tough to see (for fun, try downloading the photos, zooming in, and try to find it).
I'll make it easier on you:
In this shot, you can see a bit of its pink leg:
That was one of the rarest birds we've seen in North America this yet, and yet one of the easiest, too. I love it when a plan comes together!
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