Day III to Day V of Wings Tour

The tour is over. Everyone went home happy.  The Pink-footed Goose was everyone's first highlight. Second highlights including a) seeing Dovekie swimming under water b) close looks at drake Tufted Ducks, c) lessons in aging Iceland Gulls, d) Red-throated Loons, e) Black-headed Gulls.  Like all January birding visitors they left St, John's happy.

Larry French (Montana), Pieter Poll (Colorado), Larry Cartwright (Virginia), Vicki Sandage (Kentucky) and Jean Wilson (Texas) pointing to their # 1 bird of the trip - the Bowring Park Pink-footed Goose. 

Having swallowed its pride it was forced to join the winter imprisoned waterfowl of St. John's.  The goose has a good chance of getting though the winter.  It has already become a focus of the serious daily duck feeders at Bowring Park.

It is pretty easy to please birders living with a lifelong Iceland Gull void.  That need was easily fixed and then some at the Pier 17 Sewer Outflow.  All these gulls are Icelands. 

adult

2nd winter

1st winter

The  small swarm of bread-eating Iceland Gulls at Quidi Vidi Lake provided live text books for explaining the look of 1st winter, 2nd winter, 3rd winter and winter adults. 

The rarest bird found during the tour was this Wood Duck near Renews on at Southern Shore tirp. Not surprisingly it didn't impress the tour participants that much.