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2002 Southport Ross's Goose update



On January 5 2002 Greg Massey's party found a Ross's Goose with one
blue and one white Snow Goose during the Southport (NC) Christmas Bird
Count.  Many people who went to chase the first state record of Green-
tailed Towhee (that Greg also discovered in the same area), saw this
bird while they were there. The Ross's had a neck collar, but nobody
followed up on it to figure out where the goose had been banded.

Recently Kathy Meeres, a Wildlife Technician with the Canadian Wildlife
Service, contacted me about the collared Ross's photos she found on my
web site (http://www.duke.edu/~cwcook/pix/sgt.html).  She said the bird
was one they banded and, with a closer look look at other photos, we
determined that the collar reads "P-0K". She writes:

"Here is some information about your Ross's goose: She was banded as an
adult female on August 7, 1999, near the Simpson River in the Queen
Maud Gulf Sanctuary (67.2° N 100.1° W). There has been one other
sighting of this bird - in Louisiana on Dec. 4, 2002. I checked my
neckband observation records as well as legband returns (mostly hunter
shot birds) for all records of banded Ross's geese in the Atlantic
Flyway and found only 6 records, none of them from North Carolina. We
have a web-site with a little information about the white goose
neckbanding effort:

http://www.pnr-rpn.ec.gc.ca/nature/migratorybirds/sg-on/wgcop-
pocob/index.en.html

Thanks for responding and confirming the code for this goose and let me
know if you see any more of them!"


Speaking of goose migration, I saw the movie "Winged Migration" at the
Colony in Raleigh yesterday -- fantastic cinematography, with film shot
on all 7 continents.  Well worth seeing on the big screen for the sheer
spectacle of birds in flight and stunning background scenery, though
the movie was a bit of a jumble, with a series of random-seeming
vignettes lacking a cohesive story.

--
Charles W. "Will" Cook                  w 919-660-7423
http://www.duke.edu/~cwcook            cwcook@duke.edu
Box 90340, Biology Dept., Duke Univ., Durham, NC 27708