Parson's Pond

[Vernon Buckle]

I arrived at Parson's Pond late this evening to find the pond full of Canada Gooses 😉. Most were visible from the rest stop but even more were visible from the road next to the ball field. I estimated there to be about 5000. It was quite the sight. An elderly local stopped by and told me that it's the most geese he's ever seen there. Due to a disappearing sun and high winds I didn't get time to find anything rare.

There were also three Killdeer next to the rest stop, quite usual for here.

Vernon

[brucema...@gmail.com]

I think this is the largest concentration of Canada Geese for anywhere on the island of Newfoundland ever. Sounds like it was a little bit abnormal according to the comment from a local. Wonder if it was due to cool weather farther north halting their migration. Wonder what normal is for Parsons Pond in April? What a place it would be to look for rare species of geese migrating back to Greenland/Iceland.

B Mactavish

[darroch....@gmail.com]

Vernon's talk of a goose extravaganza compelled me to take a spin up to Parson's Pond after work. I wasn't disappointed. My goose estimate was a more modest 2,000 (!) and I didn't see anything odd in the ~800 that were close enough to be sure (lots of shimmer coming off the water so the big flocks at the far end were just goose mirages). Other highlights were 4 killdeer and modest numbers of some other waterfowl.

Also made a quick sunset stop at St. Pauls on the way back. Too late to check the whole area and most of the birds were backlit by the sunset, but at least another 300 geese, at least as many black ducks and several mallards, scaup, mergansers, goldeneyes. Will see if I can get back up there soon for a proper look. Finally several pairs of geese on traditional nesting ponds along the road and ~10 caribou on bogs.

Darroch

NL--Parson's Pond, Northern Peninsula-St. Anthony, Newfoundland and Labrador, CA
Apr 25, 2017 7:00 PM - 8:00 PM
Protocol: Stationary
14 species (+1 other taxa)

Canada Goose 2000
American Black Duck 125
Mallard 5
American Black Duck x Mallard (hybrid) 1
Northern Pintail 25
Greater Scaup 1
Common Goldeneye 4
Common Merganser 2
Northern Goshawk 1
Killdeer 4
Ring-billed Gull 35
Herring Gull 2
Great Black-backed Gull 6
American Crow 11
American Robin 2

View this checklist online at http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S36270381

[John & Ivy Gibbons]

Parsons Pond has a very large concentration of Canada Geese every spring but in all the years I have stopped to look at them I've never attempted a count. I would say though that the peak of any normal spring would certainly be well above 1000, perhaps 2 or 3 times that...Western Arm Brook (St. Barbe) which I sometimes count often has 400-500 in a much, much smaller space and visually, the number of geese there does not compare to the #'s at Parson's Pond. Yes, the rate at which spring progresses seems to have a tremendous effect on the number of ducks and geese that are temporarily concentrated along the coast. This spring should be an excellent one. There are few very areas of open water so far with Parsons Pond and a few others being notable exceptions. Not only can the birds not find open water farther north, there is also nothing thawed even a mile or two inland so it will be awhile before they can disperse. Every now and then We get a spring with conditions like this and it always makes for great waterfowl watching.