Subject: Taverners/Lesser Canada Goose
Date: Nov 1 14:01:50 1995
From: Steven Feldstein - sbf at essc.psu.edu



>On Tue, 31 Oct 1995, Gene Hunn wrote:
>
>Perhaps they are the "Taverner's Canada Goose," which is lumped by some
>with "lesser Canada Goose," though they are rather darker and winter west
>of the Cascades, especially in the Willamette Valley.
>
>Gene Hunn.
>

I believe I saw the same flock of small Canada Geese in Ocean Shores that Randy
Deardorff refers to. My impression is also that they were _B. c. taverneri_.
I used to live in Colorado, and believe that the majority of Canada Geese
I was seeing were _moffiti_ and _parvipes_. Often, I would see flocks
of Canada Geese that would contain mostly _moffiti_, and a few _parvipes_.
The size ratio between the Canada Geese I saw in Ocean Shores
very much reminded me of that which I would often see in Colorado.
The fact that the smaller Canada Geese appeared to be darker than the
_parvipes_ in Colorado suggests to me that these individuals might be
_taverneri_.

However, there is an important point that should be mentioned.
I assume that the _parvipes_ that winter/migrate
through Washington breed westward of those found in Colorado.
Furthermore, Palmer (1976) indicates that that _parvipes_ shows
clinal variation in that western individuals are darker than eastern
individuals. So, perhaps these smaller Canada Geese were dark _parvipes_.
This leads to the question of whether _taverneri_ is indeed a valid subspecies.

Steven Feldstein
Earth System Science Center
The Pennsylvania State University
sbf at essc.psu.edu

>On Tue, 24 Oct 1995, Randy Deardorff wrote:
>
>> This Sunday (10/22) at Damon Point, there was a group of about 20
>> Canada Geese on the central pond. With them, were 6 individuals of
>> one of the smaller subspecies. I've never seen any of these before,
>> at least not so closely associated with the larger geese, where their
>> smaller size was so obvious.
>>
>> They seemed to be a bit more than half the size of the larger geese.
>> Definitely bigger than Mallards, which were also present. Their
>> breasts were darker than their bigger cousins, with a warm brown cast.
>> There was no white neck ring. The white cheek-patches seemed
>> narrower, even slightly pointed.
>>
>> I've consulted the usual field guides, but they seem to offer somewhat
>> conflicting information on the subspecies. I've also read the
>> appropriate passages from "Birds of Washington State", Jewett et al,
>> 1953, as well as another waterfowl book I forget the name of, but I
>> have not been able to make sense of it. Any ideas?
>>
>> If anyone wants to reply personally, I will summarize back to the list.
>>
>> Thanks.
>>
>> Randy Deardorff / Barb Smith
>> curlew at eskimo.com
>> Seattle, Washington USA