Ken is right about "Lesser Canada" which is what I alluded to in my earlier
response. The question for me then is, what does B.Hutchinsii "variant" really
mean? Conservative approach to something none of us could really put a label
on?
I see Geese like this at many locations throughout our area and at no time at
all am I considering Cackling subspecies. Perhaps, I need to rethink that. I
imagine eBird reviewers will have their work cut out for them with this one
going forward.
Personally, I would not call this a Cackling Goose subspecies b.hutchinnsi. But
then, I am no expert on these matters ;-)
Cheers,
風 Swift as the wind
林 Quiet as the forest
火 Conquer like the fire
山 Steady as the mountain
Sun Tzu The Art of War
> (__/)
> (= '.'=)
> (") _ (")
> Sent from somewhere in the field using my mobile device!
Andrew Baksh
www.birdingdude.blogspot.com
> On Feb 15, 2016, at 2:55 PM, Peter Post <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>
> Jean Irons kindly forwarded my query concerning the Id of the Central Park
> goose to goose expert Ken Abraham. His opinion is that it is a Cackling Goose
> (B. hutchinsii). Details below:
>
> Peter Post
>
>
> Begin forwarded message:
>
>> From: [email protected]
>> Date: February 15, 2016 11:09:48 AM EST
>> To: [email protected]
>> Subject: Re: [BIRDWG01] goose ID
>> Reply-To: [email protected]
>>
>> Hi Peter,
>>
>>
>>
>> We asked goose expert Ken Abraham to comment. Please see
>> below.
>>
>>
>>
>> “It’s difficult to tell what this bird is, other than
>> that it is smaller white-cheeked goose than the associated birds (which are
>> likely large Canada Geese of the local breeding population). The bill is the
>> obvious character trait that doesn’t fit the birder’s conventional wisdom
>> that
>> a cackling goose must have a short, stubby, triangular bill. This is not the
>> case. Photographs of breeding geese from Southampton Island and western
>> Hudson
>> Bay coast of Nunavut deemed to be B. hutchinsii show a variety of bill
>> shapes,
>> including ones that look like the bird in this observation. There is also a
>> fairly large variation in B. hutchinsii body size from the Nunavut-Manitoba
>> border to Baffin Island (larger in the
>> south approaching the low end of the B. c. interior size range).
>>
>>
>>
>> My usual caveat about identification of any eastern
>> white-cheeked goose as a Lesser Canada Goose B. c. parvipes is that such a
>> bird
>> would be exceedingly exceedingly rare based on all known band recoveries from
>> the restricted breeding range of B. c. parvipes
>> as it understood since the revision of thinking about species and
>> subspecies in the 2004 A.O.U. split. Current thinking is that B. c. parvipes
>> is
>> restricted to Alaska, and that the small white cheeked geese across the
>> Canadian arctic from Yukon to Nunavut are B.
>> hutchinsii. The observer of this bird may not be aware of this (and
>> frankly most people aren’t because some of the information isn’t published or
>> widely available).
>>
>>
>>
>> Thus, as a conservative thinker on this issue of small
>> white-cheeked geese, I would call this bird a B. hutchinsii variant.”
>>
>>
>>
>> Ron Pittaway and Jean Iron
>>
>> Toronto ON
>>
>>
>>> Date: Sun, 14 Feb 2016 11:28:03 -0500
>>> From: [email protected]
>>> Subject: [BIRDWG01] goose ID
>>> To: [email protected]
>>>
>>> I photographed this goose, yesterday, 13 February, on the Central
>>> Park Reservoir, New York City. I would appreciate comments
>>> concerning ID. I'm leaning toward B. canadensis parvipes. Thanks.
>>>
>>> Photos can be found here:
>>> http://www.ardithbondi.com/page127.html
>>>
>>> Peter Post
>>> New York City, NY
>>>
>>> Archives: http://listserv.ksu.edu/archives/birdwg01.html
>>
>> Archives: http://listserv.ksu.edu/archives/birdwg01.html
>
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