Look Who Dropped into Bowring Park

It was  snowy dawn when I parked at Bowring Park, St. John's on 3 January. My plan was to drink a Tims on a park bench and wait for hawks to come in and harass the pigeons. Also wanted to check the pond edges for possible warblers seeing how many warblers are still kicking around town.  Before I reached the first park bench I noticed a goose sleeping with the mass of ducks not yet awake in the shallow water.  It was the missing PINK-FOOTED GOOSE from the Goulds.  We had all but given up hope on this bird after last being seen a couple of weeks or so in the Goulds farm fields.  Well here it was right under our noses in the middle of St. John's.  Didn't expect such a wary bird to have braved the city noises, people and dogs but here it was.

The Pink-footed Goose as is as how I first saw it at dawn on the shores of the Bowring Park duck pond in St. John's.

Standing in a sea of Black Ducks and park Mallards the goose seemed well adopted by the local waterfowl.  

The alarms went out to the birding circle.  Eventually the ducks and goose woke up.  People bringing bags of bird seed kept the mass of ducks happy. The goose was not interested in seed but was poking around in the shallow snow looking for bits of green grass.  It is going to have to change the diet to survive the winter.  According to a city worker the goose arrived on 28 December.  It was skittish at first he said.  Now it is very tame.

 

The Pink-footed Goose ignored offers of bird seed that drove the park ducks into feeding frenzies and tried grazing on what little green grass it could find in the thin layer of powder snow.