Hi Tweets,

Phil Davis asks:

>One last question ... are all the races of Canada Geese that are "likely"
>to split [this won't start a debate, will it???] represented in Cascadia at
>this time of the year (a week from now). I surmise that this would include
>the "Cackling Goose".

Godfrey's Birds of Canada, Rev'd gives a bewildering array of migrant and
resident races for the region: parvipes, the 'Lesser Canada' which Campbell
in Birds of BC suggests migrates through the BC Interior and western
Prairies; fulva, coastal BC; hutchinsii, 'Richardson's Goose', a small-race
goose with a stub bill; minima, the 'Cackling Canada', the smallest;
leucopareia, the 'Aleutian Canada', another diminutive race; and finally,
occidentalis, the 'Dusky Canada'. It appears that the only one which doesn't
make it to the West Coast itself is the first race, parvipes. Madge & Burn,
in Waterfowl have taverneri, Taverner's Goose, as an intergrade between
small and large races, while Godfrey has it as a distinct "breeding form".

>(Sorry, I don't have research at my finger tips to be
>more specific on the subspecies. Any particular places recommended for
>finding them?

The fields of South Delta and Sea Island--both S of Vancouver BC--and Pitt
Meadows to the NE have many Canada's during the migrations and winter, some
of which will be clearly small-race birds. For some reason, the small-race
birds often drop into Stanley Park's Lost Lagoon in downtown Vancouver's
West End, and will sometimes hang around the small pond and surrounding
lawns in Devonian Park just across Georgia Street from the Lagoon. Can't
help you on migration chronologies for the different races though, Phil,
there just doesn't seem to be any material on that. From personal obs, I'd
guesstimate that birds of the minima/hutchinsii/leucopareia crowd come in a
bit later: mid- to late October. Follwing the example of the Stanley Park
layabouts, they become very tame quite quickly.

Michael Price We aren't flying...we're falling with style!
Vancouver BC Canada -Buzz Lightyear, Toy Story
mprice at mindlink.net