What I Didn't See Today

It's my own fault, I know; still, I can't help thinking that if I'd gotten out of bed at 6:06 instead of 6:09; or if I had made the light at Route 27 & Oak Tree Road, or Route 27 & St. George's Avenue, or any one of the dozen lights I hit on my way up to Rahway River Park; certainly if I hadn't stopped at Wawa to buy a salad for lunch, then my unwarranted confidence in my knowledge of the location of River Road would not have mattered and even though I overshot the mark by a mile (literally) and ended up in Linden before I turned around, I would have still seen the Barnacle Goose that has been in the park every morning for the last week.

I had to go to Iselin today to help my mother with financial papers, so I thought it would be a good chance to get this rarity on the list for the year. I had been warned that Canada Goose flock that the Barnacle was associating with started to leave around 7:30 and by 8 o'clock was pretty much gone, so I knew I was cutting it close.

By the time I pulled into the parking area at Jackson's Pond in the park it 7:59. There were still geese in the water and two birders up ahead. I approached and asked if the Barnacle Goose was still there. "Sure, it's right over there." I didn't see it. One of the birders, Natalie, started to tell me where to look, an icy point on the other side of the water, when another birder came up from behind, his booming voice drowning out her directions. I asked her to repeat and she did, but the guy would not shut up and I couldn't hear her the 2nd time. Her friend had a long lens on his camera. He was going to put the goose in the eye piece for me. When he looked through the camera, he said it was gone. It had just flown off with a group of geese. I wanted to do harm to the birder with the big mouth.

I missed the goose by 2 minutes. I should have programmed the intersection into my GPS instead of thinking I'd see the street. I was so...frustrated is the polite way to put it. I had to keep telling myself, "Don't take it out on Mom, don't take it out on Mom." On the way back to Iselin, I came across a Quick-Chek. I like their salads better than Wawa. The stop at Wawa was unnecessary. Frustration compounded.

My next scheduled trip to Iselin is in 3 weeks. It is very unlikely the goose will stick around that long. I know missing a bird is part of birding, but these were especially aggravating circumstances: My own laziness and a stranger's yapping. I dragged the disappointment through the day like it was gum on my shoes. And it doesn't help my spirits that the Smith's Longspur, which we tried for and missed at Stone Harbor on February 1st, has reappeared more than a month later.