Canada Goose - Branta canadensis
I am working my way through some obvious and common "British"'birds this week to fill in time before the first big adventure of the year - a 3 day dash to India ! The camera is poised - the jungly gear all packed and the flight booked. I have been to Sri Lanka - the mainland of India is somewhere I have never set foot.It seems a bit odd to make the first trip a mad dash for birds. There you go though. I predicted that the creation of this site would drive me to do some slightly silly things. So next weekend I am staying in a very posh 5 star Indian hotel for 3 nights and getting picked up by a professional bird guide for 2 days to get as many pictures of birds as I can. I am very excited. Its also an opportunity to give the camera a test run before the safari to Tanzania in July. This year should be a big bird year.
I remember the first time as an adult I stepped out with some binoculars - I felt very very silly. The silliest thing was that I resurrected the plastic binoculars I had used in the 70's - No gas filled roof prism jobs these. Truly hideous optics that my parents had no doubt bought me from an advert in the back of the Daily Mail in a well meaning way. I was actually walking around with these in the late 90's in the full view of proper birders. It gets worse - I took them into the hide at Cley - please No !!! Thats like wearing a knitted jumper and flared jeans in a London club. So I felt a bit awkward but then you get into it after a while - you only look silly to other people. I guess India will be like that - I will feel just a bit wierd travelling somewhere quite so big and important with no other purpose than to look at birds. That brings me to my new books.
When I was in the UK last week I went to Conwey reserve in North Wales - it was a nice excuse to give my 88 year mother-in-law a run out. They sell second hand books there. Sadly some of old boy had died recently and the shelf was full of old field guides. I picked up I think 5 books ranging from Mexico and Central America to Russia to West Africa - all needed.
The lovely thing is that in each book are his pencil ticks against each species. Whoever he was he had had a pretty good go over his lifetime. I spent twenty pounds - everything in my pocket to get as many of them as I could. In a strange way I thought he might want me to carry on where he left off and to give the books a purpose and a home. I can relate to that old fellow whoever he was. I bet he retired and then packed in as many trips as he could. He didn't put his name in which is a shame. I think I'd like to pass on my books - ticked as well. Perhaps I should use a different colour. He made it to South America - he made it to Gambia probalby - The Steppes of Russia and Costa Rica. He wrote very neatly. A very precise pencil cross against Rufous Legged Owl for example means he made it to Chile ! Some old boy from North Wales and he was travelling the world and ticking them off. Very very poignant for me. So I feel a sense of communion and I am happy that some of his books have found a home. My bag weighed a ton on the way back last week.
So Canada Goose - sorry - first brought over from the Americas for Charles II in the 1680's. They quickly became a fashion statement and of course escaped and multiplied until we now find ourselves with 60,000 of these invasive geese in the UK. They foul up park ponds, destroy crops, collide with aircraft and generally make a nuisance of themselves. They belong in North America where they are a wild and virile birds migrating over thousands of miles and battling with the elements. In the UK they make droppings. If I can make a film recomendation for Canada Geese try the disneyesque "Fly Away Home" - tears before Sunday tea. The "true" story of orphaned geese following a microlight aircraft South to try and save a wetland from development. All good stuff.
Picazuro Pigeon - the old boy saw one of those. Great Pampa Finch - you have to hand it to him. Rest well.
Canada Goose, Branta candensis
Barn Elms, April 2012
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