After a wet and fairly quiet weekend on the reserve we were all ready for a bit of excitment this morning, and we thought we'd hit the jackpot when Andrew spotted a small, very white goose with dark wingtips out on the low ground. The first thought was that this could be a Snow Goose- a rare visitor from further north which occasionally migrates south with flocks of Greylags or Pink-feet. Strathbeg used to be a pretty reliable site for winter Snow Geese but we missed out on one last year (and we've not had a new bird on the year list for what seems like ages) so it wasn't long before there was a bit of a mini-'twitch' going on in the visitor centre.
At first, while it was swimming, it looked exactly right- pure white, pink bill and what looked like very dark or black feathers at the tips of its wings. However when if flew it just didn't seem quite right...
Andrew and I nipped down to Tower Pool Hide with the scopes for a closer look and to see if Andrew could get some pictures. Unfortunately it soon seemed that all wasn't as it originally seemed, as it preened and flapped it was clear that instead of black patches they were a sort of dull, dark grey. When it swam it had a strange outline, with head held really low making it look almost more like a large duck rather than a goose. It also seemed to be suffering from a slight lack of co-ordination and turned a couple of complete somersaults in the water while trying to scratch some of the more hard-to-reach places.
Interestingly we've had a couple of strange looking geese over the past week, including another almost pure white bird (differently marked to this one) near Fen Hide last Sunday and the rather smart piebald bird below on the last dawn Goosewatch on Saturday morning.
We still haven't decided exactly what our mystery goose is, I'm leaning towards a hybrid, Andrew's holding out hope for leucistic Snow Goose and we've had a suggestion of an immature Ross's Goose from one of our regular birders. We know that geese can cross breed very easily, so is there a family out there with slightly mixed parentage- perhaps even the Ross's Goose that was on the reserve this time last year..? If you're about over the next week and see a strange little white walker in with the Pink-feet then let us know what you think it might be!
Hi Finlay,
I'm fairly sure it's not quite the same bird you and John had at the weekend. When you saw it close up the wing pattern looked different and it had a smaller slimmer head than yours. They are remarkably similar though.
I've posted a link on Twitter- northronbirdobs.blogspot.co.uk/.../27th-may.html which has some pics of a hybrid Snow Goose that was on Ronaldsay last year which looks a lot like ours.
Interesting to see if you do see a patch of leucistic House Sparrows around you. Have you looked at the BTO Abnormal Pluumage Survey? www.bto.org/.../plumage They'd be really keen to see your records so far.