April 10, 2004
Exotic beast
Photographed a beautiful male Painted Bunting in York County PA today, but here's something completely different. Meet Bucks County PA's Canada Goose of 2024. This bird is just one of a steadily increasing Bucks Co population of Egyptian Geese. Three have been hanging out at Lake Nockamixon for several weeks; they bred last summer on a small farm pond adjacent to Nockamixon State Park, producing 8 or 9 young. Apparently waterfowl collectors often release these birds due to their habit of systematically seeking out and destroying every egg that isn't their own. Nasty quarrelsome nuisance birds, but kinda cool looking anyway.
Here's that Painted Bunting. Photo kinda sucks...distant and not exactly focused. This bird is wary and doesn't tend to sit still for long. Came within about 2/10ths of a second of getting a nice focused zoomed in well-composed photo, but the bird jumped as my finger hit the trigger and never reappeared. Rats...
That's it for now.
Posted by brewbird at April 10, 2004 05:34 AMPainted Bunting looks smart. We have Egyptian Geese over here in the UK too. Wonder if they will ever establish themselves over there.
Posted by: tony at April 11, 2004 02:55 AM