New England Coastal Birds: Part 4-Saturday Feb 25- “Pink-footed Goose”

Friday, March 9, 2012

Part 4-Saturday Feb 25- “Pink-footed Goose”

   A Nomad Goose so far from its home-yet so close to mine!

Saturday morning I was in my studio putting the finishing carving touches on a drake
Wood Duck decoy. Jen told me that she just read on CTBirds that Mark Barriger had just reported a Pink-footed Goose at Lyman’s Orchard Pond. Since Lyman’s is only fifteen minutes from our house, I grabbed my camera and we were on our way. The pond at the Apple Barrel store in Middlefield has hosted some very special Geese the last two winters.

On November 25, 2010, a Greater White-fronted, and an immature Blue Goose were spotted in the pond. When I was there photographing those two Geese, I also spotted a single Richardson’s Canada Goose that was only slightly larger than a drake Mallard. A few months later on March 08, a flock of a dozen and a half Blue Geese were spotted in the corn field in front of the Apple Barrel.

     Greater White-fronted Goose at Lyman’s Pond

Immature Blue Goose at Lyman’s Pond

Richardson’s Canada Goose at Lyman’s Pond

     Part of the flock of eighteen Blue Geese at nearby White’s Farm in Durham

A bit of information about the visiting Pink-footed Goose (Anser brachyrhynchus)- This monotypic Goose breeds in eastern Greenland, Iceland and Svalbard (an archipelago in the Arctic, constituting the northernmost part of Norway).

The geese migrate to winter in the countries surrounding the North Sea, (the entire world population winters in just a few European countries). There are two populations. The population that breeds in east Greenland and Iceland migrate and winter in Britain and

Ireland

. The population that breeds in Svalbard, winter in the Netherlands, Denmark and

Belgium

. There is no mixing between these two populations which are separated throughout the year.

For information regarding the two Pink-footed Geese noted in CT this winter, see Greg Hanisek’s blog: http://blogs.rep-am.com/nature/2012/02/26/how-many-pink-footed-geese-2/

    My report to CTBirds: The P F Goose was swimming in the pond with approx. 75 Canada Geese

It gave good close looks, and walked out of the pond exposing those obvious 'pink" feet and tarsus.

     The P F Goose stretches its wings.

The Goose was suddenly startled; it jumped up but landed again after a quick “hop” into the air.

This smaller Goose stood its ground against the larger Canadas and was able to back down the
aggressive larger Canada Goose.

     It walked up onto the lawn and started grazing with the Canadas.

     Portraits of this beautiful nomadic Goose

While I was there photographing this special Goose, there were several other birders
there. Russ Smiley introduced himself to me, and he then pointed out a hen Shoveler on the opposite shore of the pond.

   The Shoveler was often mixed in with the Geese and ended up in many photos with the P F Goose

This Goose seems quite timid, and seems to prefer to stay on the periphery of all the other birds.

I couldn’t resist, I had to take a few shots of these Canada Geese…..

…..and this Mallard/Black Duck hybrid.

As we were leaving, this Red-tailed Hawk flew over Route 147. The Pink-footed Goose was still present when we left.

Keith and Jen Mueller     Killingworth, CT

Part 5- Sunday Feb 26- “A good place to meet”, another look at Larus glaucoides” and “ New Haven Harbor banded Gulls”

Jen and I spent a couple of hours Gulling this afternoon. While Jen was visiting with her parents, I met Sean Murtha and his sons Brendan and Graham just down the road at Circle Beach. Sean is an accomplished Wildlife Artist ( http://seanmurthaart.com/), and Brendan has a wonderful birding blog (http://catchingthethermals.wordpress.com/).

We all had good looks at the continuing adult Iceland Gull. But most interesting was the gull numbers had increased from usual hundred birds to well over three hundred.

The Murtha’s: Brendan (left), Graham (middle) and Sean (back).

While we were looking at the Gulls, they all suddenly flushed.

We immediately looked around knowing that a raptor couldn’t be too far away. I looked over the cottages to our left, and there it was; a single immature Red-shouldered Hawk flying low over the water fifty yards out.

The hawk passed by and flew towards Grass Island, and all the Gulls including the Iceland returned (with a bit of persuasion).

After saying good-bye to the Murtha’s, Jen and I checked the Guilford area near Shell Beach; no Gulls. The boat ramp at New Haven Harbor was covered with nearly five hundred gulls. Jen spotted a banded first cycle Herring Gull standing on the railing of the pier in front of the parking area. The Gull had a green leg marker band. I knew it was one of Dr. Ellis’ Gulls from her project on Appledore Island off the southern Maine coast (near the Isle of Shoals islands off the New Hampshire coast).

I sent Dr. Ellis the images of the Gull with the sighting information, and she replied later that this Gull #M04 was banded as a chick in July 2011.

We also found a banded and blue leg tagged Ring-billed Gull at Long Wharf among two-hundred-fifty (mostly Ring-billed) Gulls there. I knew that this Gull was from the University of Quebec at Montreal banding program (this was the second this year I found), and I sent the sighting location and information to them. The band data was sent back and this adult Ring-billed Gull with the blue leg marker band #P6Z and metal band #0954-19502 was banded in July 2011, at Île Deslauriers, Varennes in Quebec. Our sighting was the first reported sighting since the bird was banded.

If you find any banded Gulls, here are the websites to report the leg marker band/wing tag numbers, and sighting information:

The Gulls of Appledore Island, Dr. Julie Ellis (Herring Gulls with green numbered leg bands and USFW metal leg bands):
http://gullsofappledore.wordpress.com/

Mass. water supply protection Gull study program- Dr. Ken MacKenzie (Ring-billed and [some] Herring Gulls with colored/numbered wing-tags with colored/numbered leg marker bands and USFW metal leg band)
http://www.mass.gov/dcr/watersupply/watershed/study/index.htm

University of Quebec, Montreal UQAM Gull Study, Professor Jean-François Giroux (Ring-billed Gulls with yellow or blue numbered leg marker bands, and metal leg bands)
http://goeland.uqam.ca/en

Banded and Blue Leg Markers with Black Letters- Lesser Black-backed Gulls
https://notendur.hi.is/gunnih/LBBG_CR_about.html

Banded and Tagged Gulls from Sable Island
https://notendur.hi.is/gunnih/LBBG_CR_about.html
Keith and Jen Mueller
Killingworth

To view Part 1 of “Late February Birding” click:

http://coastalbirds2.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2012-03-06T05:39:00-08:00&max-results=15&start=1&by-date=false

To view Part 2- Saturday Feb 18- Rhode Island – “Rhode Island birding group” :

http://coastalbirds2.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2012-03-08T18:46:00-08:00&max-results=15

To view Part 3: "Gulls you say"?- "Gloucester it is"! :

http://coastalbirds2.blogspot.com/2010/03/part-3-gulls-you-say-gloucester-it-is.html

Late February Birding continues with these upcoming reports that will be posted soon:

Part 6- Tuesday Feb 28- “Gloucester Again”- Glaucous Gulls!

Part 7- Saturday March 3/Sunday March 4- “White-winged Gulls in Three States in One Day”! New Hampshire coast/Gloucester/Madison, CT

Overview

This blog is a collaboration of Keith Mueller and Tom Robben. Our hope is primarily to provide birding field trip experiences along the New England coast. We are going to try our best to "capture" a tiny bit of the immense beauty and treasure of coastal nature and to share those days and places with others.

For many birders, their love of birding extends way beyond a check mark in a book. It is often the experience of finding that species in a special location that holds a special place in their hearts often driven by a personal quest wanting something more than just noting it.

For many (Avian) Artists, birding experiences ignite our passion and creativity. Being "inspired" opens the door to our creative process; and that creative process can lead us on a journey in endless directions! Inspired art projects a narrative. Its the artists job to tell it, and the viewer to absorb it.

Being an Avian Artist/Sculptor, species accounts, habitat structure, and the species itself are critical for a successful design and composition. With the type of work I and many others produce, the subject must be portrayed accurately and realistically. Often reference material is not available, and without accurate reference material the composition fails. In my birding narratives I try and "paint" as much information as I can surrounding the species for those that may be interested with possibly unfamiliar species and will hopefully benefit by a better understanding.

This I will try and accomplish through species anatomy, plumage, character and species traits, habitat and environment, and interaction with other sepecies. For these artists, I include many images of the species from as many angles and postures as I can. This may be redundant to many readers, but for the artist/carver/sculptor, a complete study of a species is essential.

About Us

Keith Mueller, Killingworth, CT- I am a professional avian artist/sculptor for over thirty-five years. I have a deep passion for birds and their environments and glean much artistic inspiration from them. In fact, birds have made a very profound impact on my life; sculpting my career. Sea birds, waterfowl and shorebirds are my favoite birds, and are my main focus for my art. Watching seabirds whether on a pelagic trip, codfishing trip or "sea-watching" with a strong onshore wind are my favorite birding attractions. I spend many hours in the field studying birds, and am creatively inspired by their habits; from subtle behavioral nuances to their species specific complexities. I enjoy the challenge to find a balance between art, nature and reality. Samples of my art can be seen here: The Art of Keith Mueller (kmuellerart.blogspot.com)

My reports on this site are accounts of my birding adventures. Although this site is technically a "blog", I am NOT (really) a blogger, nor a writer. I just want to share my birding experiences and accounts from the day in hopes to inspire others to enjoy (possibly) new birding adventures . I also enjoy photographing birds very much, and the images I take are used for my art reference and studies. However, I am NOT a photographer, I consider myself a "picture-taker"! My camera equipment is standard for basic photography: Canon 60D (50D for back-up) with a Canon 100-400mm IS f/4-5.6 lens. I have a Swarovski 20/60x scope and it is fitted it with a Canon S95 camera with adapter for digi-scoping. For binoculars I have a pair of Leica Trinovid 8x42 (Thanks Jen-birthday gift)! I don't keep a list, and actually I don't have any idea how many species I have actually noted. To me, spending a day birding with my wife Jen at a beautiful location experiencing fascinating birds is about as good as it gets. The "adventure" of birding along the beautiful New England coast or on the sea is our motivation.

A Little Information about my Sculptures, Carvings and Decoys- I have been carving decoys for waterfowlers, photographers, researchers and collectors for all of my career. My decoys have floated, stood in fields and hung from trees on both coasts and many inland areas in between, and in the UK, Mexico and Costa Rica.

I have always been passionate about creating birds in wood, and it is exciting when their wild counterpart associate with them side-by-side; I brings a big smile to my face! Since so many of my Waterfowl, Shorebird and Wading Bird decoys have successfully lured in their counterparts over all these years, I have now taken my decoy art in a new direction. My newest decoy/bird related passion is to carve and deploy as many species of favorite bird decoys as possible with the hopes of capturing both the bird and my decoys together in the same images. Have you ever seen Shearwater, Fulmar, Skua, and Jaeger decoys floating a hundred miles offshore on a pelagic bird trip? Or maybe Puffin, Murre, Razorbill, Dovekie or possibly a Red-billed Tropicbird decoy(s) floating in the Atlantic? Search the blog archives and enjoy!

For my decoys, I use many wood species to carve them from local New England White Cedar, White Pine and Basswood. I also use Tupelo which I have shipped from North Carolina and Louisiana. Spanish Cedar and Mahogany from Central American Tree Farms are also choices of mine. To accomodate vulnerable areas such as long tails and delicate bills, I use a variety of strong local woods such as Holly and Dogwood, and imported woods such as: Greenheart, Zapote, Almendro, etc. for strengthening inserts. All my decoys are hand painted with the finest oil paints in the World: Old Holland, Robert Doak, and Jacob Ouillette. For more information regarding my decoys, carvings and sculptures, see my carving site listed above ( The Art of Keith Mueller )

You cannot create art without being "Inspired"! In my professional career, there have been many great Artists in all mediums that have been very profound "Inspirations" to me-Favorite traditional Bird and Decoy Carvers- "Shang" Wheeler, Elmer Crowell and Gus Wilson, favorite Wood Carver- Grinling Gibbons, favorite Birding Naruralist- Keith Brockie, favorite Bird Painter/Artist- Richard Sloan, favorite Bird Illustrator- C. F. Tunnicliffe, other Bird Artists- Trevor Boyer, Lars Johansson, Terrance James Bond, favorite Author- Alexander Skutch, favorite Oil Painter- Raymond Booth, favorite Musical Artist- John Lennon, favorite Art Theory Author- Henry Rankin Poore, favorite Contemorary Bird Sculptors- Gary Eigenberger, Greg Woodard and Todd Wholt, and most importantly: favorite Artistic Motivator- Jen.

Tom Robben, Glastonbury, CT - I started birding on my 7th birthday when my dear parents gave me binoculars and a bird book. I became active in the Scarsdale Audubon Society at 14, and the NY Linnaean Society at 19. I started birding mostly in NY and NJ, then in other states, and eventually overseas. I joined the COA, Hartford Audubon and the Brookline Bird Club since 2008.

I have been very lucky to be able to bird with many really top-notch birders, including my dear friend, the late Tom Davis. Partnered with Guy Tudor in 1972 to initiate the use of "Christmas Counts" to do the first Summer Bird Counts...

Summer Bird Count 1973 article or http://elibrary.unm.edu/sora/NAB/v027n03/p00566-p00570.pdf) and assisted my son's analysis of 34 years of Summer Bird Counts in Greenwich/Stamford CT... SBC Summer Bird Counts by Shoon Robben . Especially interested in pelagic, coastal, north woods and alpine birding, and those beautiful wild natural locations. Cape Cod is one of my favorite areas... Cape Cod Seabirding . Am hoping to get more young people interested in Nature, birds, wild natural areas, and taking good care of the planet.

New England Coastal BIrds

Friday, March 9, 2012

Part 4-Saturday Feb 25- “Pink-footed Goose”