Tom McKinney - Canada Geese

Here are lots of dreadful photos of two Canada Geese present on Islay over the last weekend (4th-7th January 2008). The photos are dreadful, I know, so let's just forget about it and move on. For those of you unable to forgive me for the poor quality of my photographs, I'm afraid there's really nothing I can do. Do you want blood?

We found three different birds altogether (which I've unimaginatively titled Bird 1, Bird 2 and Bird 3), as well as two hybrid Canada x Barnacles. I was about to die of hypothermia (think Scott of the Antarctic eating his sled dogs, only worse) whilst watching Bird 3, and so my priorities were focussed more on trying not to die than getting some photographs, which no doubt would have been rubbish anyway.

I *think* that up until about a year or so ago, these birds would have been labelled by us filthy imperial Europeans as hutchinsii (Bird 1) and parvipes (Bird 2), but since Harry Hanson (not to be confused with his older, more famous, brother Helly Hansen who invented the coat) published his white-cheeked geese book, everyone now seems to be totally confused, and so I'll happily leave them unidentified, should that be the case. However, since returning home, I noticed that some birdspotting information services reported these birds as different to the ones that I was phoning them in as - in fact, I merely phoned in all three birds individually as just "small Canada Goose", though I'll try not to lose too much sleep over it.

I'd love to know more about these geese, so if anyone has any opinions (sensible opinions and extremely stupid opinions are both equally welcome) then please email me at:

tommckinney1979

yahoo.co.uk

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Bird 1 (7th January 2008)

This was in the south-west of the island on the bit of land that sticks out known as The Oa at approximately NR337457. This bird has a small black splodge on the rear of the cheek that makes it quite distinctive, should it be found elsewhere on the island.

Tiny! Markedly smaller than the Barnacles. Black on rear of base of neck sock bled untidily onto the nape (or do I mean mantle? or even saddle? I don't know). Compare this with the neat base of the neck sock on Bird 2 below - go on, compare them NOW!

Look at how thin that neck is - wow, absolutely unbelievable! (I'm perhaps going a bit over the top there). There was little contrast between the upperparts and underparts, and I'd say it was a relatively darkish bird overall. But look at how nice and sparkling clean the white chin strap is - its mother would be proud!

Note the pale flank patch (does that have any relevance whatsoever?), no black throat line (though there was a little notch of black that jutted out onto the throat) and the distinctive dark splodge on rear of cheek. Also - the photos are too blurred to show this - there were lots of small dark brown flecks on the upper nape and 'shoulders' that were quite obvious, but you can't see them on the photos so you'll just have to take my word for it.

Note the same things as you're supposed to note in the other photo above. (Note that I'm not sure whether any of these things are worth noting, but as Roy Walker used to say on Catchphrase: "Just say what you see"... "Is it 'bridge over troubled water', Roy?"... "Correct!" ... etc... [apologies if you don't know what Catchphrase is])

There's no white band at the base of the neck sock (do you care?). It also has an average coloured breast (ie neither particularly dark nor pale). Bill was short and stubby but head quite sleek. And just look at how thin that neck is - WOW!

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Bird 2 (6th January 2008)

In the centre of the island (sort of), we viewed Bird 2 distantly from Neriby Farm looking towards Mulindry. It was about 1/2 mile away and therefore my photos of this are even worse than the ones above. My wife has suggested that I stop taking photos and smash up my camera - I'm starting to think she might be onto something (or perhaps she's just on something? I suppose she must be to have married me). Although distant, after prolonged viewing (45 hours!) we were both happily convinced that the bird did not have a black throat line.

Bird 2 flanked by two monstrosities of nature (hybrid Canada x Barnacles). The bill on this bird was a lot bigger/longer, but the forehead sloped more gently forming a continuation onto the bill, ie the bill didn't just stick out. Apologies if this aint making any sense.

When I first found it away from the other geese I thought that it looked huge, and initially wondered if it might one of the big ones, like a Todd's or whatever they're called nowadays (interior?). But as it slowly worked its way towards the Barnacles it started to shrink and was only slightly bigger than the Barnacles. However, structurally it was very long and certainly long necked, and this made it always seem very horizontal (other than the times when it put its head up and then it seemed a bit more vertical - it's all bollocks this bird identification nonsense!)

Rear of base of neck sock was neat when neck was outstretched (remember what I said about Bird 1? well go back and look again...). Just in case you're wondering, the Canada Goose is the one on the right... I think...

Another shot of that tidy rear base of black neck sock thing.

In the field we couldn't detect a white band at the base of the neck sock, but one is hinted at in this photo. The photo could perhaps be lying, or we could have missed it due to the distance - however, if there was a band then it certainly wasn't very obvious.

This photo seems to show some dark under the chin (shadow? crap photo?), but it definitely didn't have a complete throat line - I swear on the Holy Bible, guv! (by the way, it's the bird on the left)

Always looked big, and the bill seemed to be a bit of a whopper (it's on the right again... I think...).

Overall it was paler than Bird 1, and the breast was certainly paler contrasting with the sides of the body. Neck could seem fat at times, but this was just a posture thing, in reality it was of 'average' girth (*desperately tries not to make infantile penis joke*)

Breast is over-exposed, but it was still pale in the field. Head seems quite chunky, a bit like Bagpuss the cat's head, only not like it at all. Differing postures clearly alter the feel of these birds, as I felt overall that there was much less of a vertical drop from the forehead to the bill.

The same photo as above only less cropped (included for no particular reason)

Long body, and it often seemed to be carrying itself low down and just skimming above the ground, as if it was some strange futuristic bio-mechanical metal-detecting machine. Perhaps it was?

Big conical bill. Do I mean conical? Not too sure. Maybe I mean more like a wedge of Edam, no Brie. Somerset brie... I just remembered that I've got a string bag of mini Babybels in the fridge... brilliant!

At times it would try to bury its head in the sand in order to forget the taxonomic disaster that it and its fellow disgraced taxa have created (taxa? well what does that mean?).

The three of them hung around like three metaphorical peas in a metaphorical pod, metaphorically speaking.

I told you the bill was big, but would you believe me?

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Bird 3 (4th January 2008)

We didn't get too much on this bird that we found just west of Loch Gruinart RSPB due to brief and extreme viewing conditions (a little bit of snow), but we did manage to ascertain that it was indeed a goose, more that likely a Canadian one. My scrawled field notes say that it was of:

equal size to Barnacles; short but thin neck; 'normal' Canada Goose head shape and bill (ie not square shaped head or stubby bill); obvious white band at base of black neck sock - very broad + obvious front on, less conspicuous side on, absent at rear; mantle dull brown; throat line not seen.

So those notes are about as useful as a fridge/freezer in Anchorage, in winter, in -58 degrees Celsius, during the next ice age, after a nuclear winter of discontent...