Between errands this afternoon, I checked the fields around Bridgehampton and Sagaponack (Suffolk Co., NY) for geese. In general, the numbers seem a bit low but perhaps the current cold spell will change that. The highlights were two geese that likely spent the summer in Greenland.
The first was a *GREATER WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE* seen with c.250 Canada Geese in a field off Wainscott Hollow Road in Sagaponack. Field ID to subspecies remains tricky (and somewhat controversial) but to my eyes the bird shows characters of the Greenland subspecies including a bright orange bill. It was quite aggressive, constantly snapping at any Canada Goose that came near and managed to keep a goose free zone around itself much of the time. The geese were feeding on freshly harvested maize on the east side of the road and the white-front seemed particularly adept at lifting the flattened corn stems to uncovered discarded cobs. A cruddy digiscoped photo is posted on my 'Birding to the end' blog http://birdingtotheend.blogspot.com/2009/12/greenland-white-fronted-and-canada.html . Shortly before that, I'd found a marked *GREENLAND-ORIGIN CANADA GOOSE* at the small pond in the apple orchard off Horsemill Lane in Mecox. I've posted a couple of (badly) digiscoped photos showing the distinctive design of the neck collar. This bird belongs to a very exciting project studying the recent and rapid colonization of western Greenland by Canada Geese. This range expansion is apparently to the detriment of the nesting Greater White-fronts, which being smaller are readily displaced from optimal nesting sites. The individual I saw today (yellow plastic collar and leg band with G24 in black letters) is a male that was first captured near Isunngua in western Greenland ('Lake T') on 17 July 2008. He - and for once I can justify using a pronoun to describe a goose - was not reported in the winter of 2008/09 but has already been sighted by Shawn Deuel in the Sagaponack area (9 and 27 Oct 2009). Several other birds have already been found this winter on Long Island and across the Sound in Connecticut. I'm not sure how many birds were marked in the summer of 2008, but the team marked 118 Canada Geese and eight Greater White-fronts in the summer of 2009. Finding these birds on the wintering grounds offers a fantastic opportunity for birders in New York and neighboring states to contribute to this important research. Obviously the arrival dates and movements of these birds will influence our thoughts on the occurrence of two other Greenland nesting species, Pink-footed Goose and Barnacle Goose. Visit this link to read all about the greenland goose project. http://greenland09.wikispaces.com/Ringing+results+and+recoveries -- Angus Wilson New York City & The Springs, NY, USA http://birdingtotheend.blogspot.com/ -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES Archives: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html 2) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
