Subject: another opinion on geese
Date: Nov 10 08:32:11 2003
From: mo sandvig - naturebook2002 at yahoo.com




"Hello Tweeters,

yet another reply:


"Dear Morris

It seems just possible, but rather unlikely, that your Pink-footed Geese might be genuine vagrants The nearest place they nest to the US west coast is east Greenland, and this population is known to be increasing. Timing might be more-or-less right for autumn migration depending on what you mean by "recently". They would, however, have had to migrate in the wrong direction by a factor of about 180 degrees to end up on the North American west coast (guessing the great circle route). Waterfowl are widely kept in captivity, but I know little of the scale of this in N America, or the frequency with which birds escape you are a better judge than me of this. On balance, I would guess that these birds are more likely to be escapes from captivity than genuine wild vagrants, but who knows?...."



Best wishes

Simon Delany

Waterbird Conservation Officer

Wetlands International

The Netherlands



Morris Sandvig

Olympia






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