Hi Tweets,

Ruth Sullivan writes:

>hi mchael,
>respondig about the lone snow goose on bowerman basin.we had a lone snow
>goose in ocean shores with a flock of canada goose on july 26.1996.listen
>to the expert birders, it isn't so unusualy to see this birds at such early
>date.

Ruth, it was from an expert that I got that little snippet. When I made the
suggestion, I wasn't expressing a personal opinion, but suggesting a strong
possibility based on one of the things discovered by a team of Russian,
Canadian and American scientists who have been studying Snow Geese for the
last decade.

And there aren't many people here much more familiar with Snow Goose
migration patterns than John Ireland, the manager of the Reifel Refuge,
where they get more Snow Geese in October and November than hell can hold.
He's been an expert bird surveyor in the UK and the S Pacific, and has
worked with the scientific team in radio-tracking the Snow Goose migration
of the various Arctic populations to and between their various wintering
territories, checking yearly productivity of young and monitoring their
movements between Reifel and Westham Islands and the Skagit Delta each
winter. If you want to know more about Snow Geese in Vancouver BC and
northern WA, he's one of the best sources of information you could possibly
have. Given that he has one of the dryest, most deadpan senses of humor on
the planet, listening to him expound on birds is a treat.

A bird in July is obviously a layover from the northbound migration it
couldn't join for whatever reason. A single bird in late September is *very*
likely to be one of these early 'scouts', as they're known, that migrate a
couple of weeks ahead of the main migration. This early, I'd put money on it
being an arrival bird.

Michael Price The Sleep of Reason Gives Birth to Monsters
Vancouver BC Canada -Goya
mprice at mindlink.net