Cobirders, A report from the Colorado Birders list: A single Emperor Goose was at N. Poudre No. 3 Reservoir today. Also present were Ross's Goose (3), Snow Goose (ca 15), and hundreds of the various white-cheeked geese.
Dix Smith Ft. Collins I was just discussing this with Nick Komar yesterday. Many birders (myself included) have a knee-jerk reaction to reject such birds as escapees from captivity. But, the reality is that species like Emperor Goose show a clear pattern of vagrancy. It would not be impossible for an Emperor Goose to join a group of Lesser Canada Geese who were headed to CO. Others may be able to shed more light on this, but I recall a report of an Emperor Goose in Weld Co. last winter or the winter before that. The bird was dispatched by a hunter, and I believe some birders tried (in vain?) to obtain some physical evidence from that bird for analysis. Fall/Winter 2010 is turning into a remarkable vagrant waterfowl year across the continent. There's a Taiga Bean Goose in CA, Baikal Teal in AZ, bona fide Graylag Geese in maritime Canada, and a slew of Barnacle and Pink-footed Geese in New England. Proving natural provenance is always difficult, but not impossible. If some Ft. Collins birders could get out there and provide us with the pertinent information that one would think would be logical to collect like the bird's age and the status of its toes and bling-bling, that would be great. Christian Nunes [email protected] http://www.flickr.com/photos/christian_nunes/ -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/cobirds?hl=en.
