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Rare Geese Draw Crowds to Southern Maine

November 09, 2009 - YARMOUTH -- A farm field in North Yarmouth is now a serious bird-watching hotspot, attracting birders from all over North America to see the first-ever documented pink-footed geese in Maine.

Caught up in a migrating flock of Canada geese, three pink-footed geese have been grazing here since mid-October. The "pinkies," as they're affectionately dubbed, typically breed in Greenland or Iceland and winter in Europe, and they are causing a stir on Internet birding blogs and mailing lists.

A rare, lone pink-footed goose is seen at times in places like Cape Cod, but North Yarmouth 2009 marks the first ever appearance of pink-footed geese in Maine. Outside Newfoundland and Greenland, birders say, the trio is the largest "group" ever documented in North America.

"They're sticking around for a long time in a fairly small area," says Derek Lovitch, a bird guide who runs Freeport Wild Bird Supply with his wife, Jeannette. Derek is recognized as the one to have first seen the pink-footeds. "They're basically traveling between two or three fields in that area."

Thornhurst Farm on Route 115 in North Yarmouth is just over the Yarmouth line and known as an annual stopover for hundreds of migrating geese. For many years, birders have frequented this field that's posted and closed to hunting to look for rare geese. Many say the geese know it's a safe haven.

It's not uncommon to see cars pulled over beside the fields here with folks looking through high-powered spotting scopes and cameras.

"It took me a long time, over an hour, to find them, but at 4 p.m. the three were east of the farm on (Route) 115, visible from along the road, but sometimes disappearing into the gully," wrote Janet Galle on the popular birding site birdingonthe.net. on Oct. 27.

Birders are coming out of the woodwork and visiting this field to cross this rare bird off of their "life lists," a tally of the world's species that all serious birdwatchers keep.

It's remarkable, but with absolutely no guarantee that the geese will be here, birders from Virginia, California – even Alaska – have purchased plane tickets to come and see these rare geese for themselves.

Lovitch said wildlife watching brings in a lot of tourist revenue.

"A few years ago, a rare bird, the western reef heron, showed up in Kittery and brought in tens of thousands of dollars," he said.

Pink-footed geese differ from Canada geese in a couple of aspects: their feet really are pink, and they sport a brown instead of black head.

Lovitch said waterfowl have been expanding their range in the northern hemisphere.

"Geese have a tendency to follow the wrong species to migration areas," Lovitch said. "In this case, it was likely a lot safer for three pink-footed geese to follow a group of Canada geese than it was to go off on their own."

Barnacle and cackling geese are other species outside of their normal range that have been spotted at Thornhurst this year, as well as in past years.

"People used to fly from one end of the country to the other to see a barnacle goose," said Lovitch. "Now it's the pink-footeds making the news."

Nearly every day since Lovitch first discovered them, there's been a short entry from somebody about this local rage on http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/MAIN.html, a popular birder posting site.

"The three pink-footed geese and the cackling goose were all present at Thornhurst (Farm) (Rt. 115) this morning at 11:30. No geese on Greely Rd.," wrote Joanne Stevens last Thursday.

Lovitch said most of the geese at Thornhurst Farm follow a regular pattern of sleeping somewhere on Casco Bay and then flying to a field near the railroad tracks on Greeley Road in Cumberland. The geese then settle in at Thornhurst Farm for an afternoon of grazing.

Thanks to these Internet posts, on Oct. 27, Tom Hayward, an avid birder from Lewiston, took the opportunity to cross the pink-footed goose off his life list.

"This is a real goose hotspot," he said. "The best thing about birding now as opposed 20 years ago is that you have all this electronic communication stating the birds are here on a certain day."

Tom Carter, a birder from Portland, was also here Oct. 27. "I met a couple from Ontario and a guy from Massachusetts here the other day," he said. "Thanks to the Internet, you really don't have to work that hard at finding unique birds anymore. I knew someone had spotted the pinkies here at 8:45 this morning."

Though they could pull up stakes and leave at any time, many birders believe the rare geese will hang around until the first snow cover buries their food supply, at which point they'll continue on south.

DON PERKINS November 4, 2009, Portland Press Herald

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Regions: Sebago


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