Surfbirds News

The "conventional" 10 or 11 taxa are now divided between the two species, but there is major variation within some of the recognised taxa. The confusion amongst birders is understandable. BBRC and BOURC need to work closely together to establish three things:

Lesser Canada Goose with Barnacle Geese, Dumfries & Galloway, October 2006
© Colin Bushell, from the Surfbirds galleries

On the basis of which records can either species be added to category A of the British list? Can we identify potential vagrants to specific and sub-specific form? What is the status of each of the various taxa?

We need the help of observers who have seen either species in Britain in a potentially wild (vagrant) state. Even if you do not know what form you saw and even if you feel the origin was doubtful the record will be of value. There is no date limit so any record from any year is welcome, but records need to be well documented. Photographs would be ideal (as many images as possible are helpful - not just the good ones) but field notes will also be acceptable alone provided they were contemporaneous. An assessment of size, bill structure and plumage tones are all important along with date (month/year at least) and location. All accepted records will be acknowledged in the usual way in the report. It is probably best not to assume that someone else will be sending in a complete record, all data can make a contribution.

Descriptions and photographs should be emailed to or sent by post to the BBRC secretary, Nigel Hudson, by March 31st 2008. We will scan and return any non-digital images by return. Photocopies or scans should suffice where there are only field notes.

Email records to: secretary@bbrc.org.uk

OR send records to:

Nigel Hudson
Post Office Flat,
Hugh Street,
St Mary’s,
Isles of Scilly,
TR21 0LL

For further details contact jimmy.steele@ncl.ac.uk

The BOU decision on the taxonomy of Canada Goose can be found at:

http://www.bou.org.uk/recnews05.html

The AOU decision can be found at:

http://www.aou.org/checklist/suppl/AOU_checklist_suppl_45.pdf

There are many useful websites on Canada Goose forms many of which carry extensive further references and images. The labelling of images is rarely verified by biometrics or ringing data and there are probably many assumptions in assigning vagrant individuals to form.

The conventional taxonomy has been challenged in the seminal work by the late Harold Hanson, the first part of which has recently been published. His taxonomic approach, which proposes over 100 taxa in 6 species, is highly controversial but his documentation of skins is exceptional. From a British perspective his museum records demonstrate that there are some populations of interest to UK birders which are not particularly well represented by the conventional taxonomy. There are still no clear answers.