Christian, I am not sure about one being dispatched, but I saw one flying in October of 2008 in Weld County and reported that on CO Birds (the white tail, dark body/under neck, and white head and upper neck make them fairly unmistakable. I must admit that I first thought escapee, but later thought I really should have sent that in to the records committee because I do not know of a zoological collection that has one (I am sure they are somewhere) and it is not unheard of for them to be seen in odd places. With that said, I have seen them in Oregon on both sides of the Cascades where they are a "normal" winter visitor (I say normal - they are accidental, but seen somewhat routinely) and accepted as a vagrant. It is odd to see them in the fall and not year round if they were an escape from a collection.
tom hall Livermore On Dec 13, 11:56 am, Christian Nunes <[email protected]> wrote: > 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.
