Looking for a place to bird out of the wind this morning, I took a long walk along the trails of Bunker Hill Bogs in Jackson. The wind was hardly noticeable in the woods there, as were the birds, except for a few busy pockets. Afterwards, I decided to go over to Jackson Liberty HS, since it was a Saturday and I wouldn't be viewed as a creep with binoculars--at least by students and faculty. I wanted to see if the Horned Larks were still on the soccer fields--it's always been amusing to me to find such big numbers of larks in such a random spot.
I parked in one of the lots and saw behind me, near the football field, a flock of Canada Geese, maybe 175, certainly not unusual. The larks, alas, were not on the field, but at least a dozen Killdeer were, and a big flock of Ring-billed Gulls plopped themselves down for a while. Going back to the car I looked at the geese again and contemplated whether I wanted to go "all the way over there" (maybe 100 yards) to look for an unlikely Cackling Goose. I figured I ought to, even though the wind was gusting around 30 mph, and I knew from past experience that as soon as the flock caught sight of me it would start walking away.
When I got about halfway there, I put up my binoculars and said aloud, "It's still here!" There, at the end of the line of geese, was a Greater White-fronted Goose, which was all the rarity rage back at the end of January, but which hadn't been reported in over a month.
Why? Because everyone who wanted to see it saw it and the bird entered rarity limbo, passing its time with the goose flock, going unnoticed unless by high school students who might give it half a thought if they saw it. I guess this is why the really great birders stop and observe every goose, gull, duck and sparrow flock, putting into practice Berra's Dictum. Because
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