A NOT SO WILD GOOSE CHASE by Dan McAskill 
     
    
   
   
    
     Telephone calls reporting the sightings of unusual birds are becoming a 
     
     more regular occurrence in our household as one of the tasks of the newsletter 
     
     editor's life is the compiling of the bird sightings list for the Island 
     
     Naturalist. On August 22nd, a call from Geoff Robinson of Tyne Valley led to a 
     
     goose chase of a different kind. It started with Geoff reporting that a 
     
     neighbour, Mr. George MacCaull, had called him regarding an unusual goose that 
     
     landed with his flocks of domestic geese and ducks the day Hurricane Bob passed 
     
     the west end of Prince Edward Island. As such storms often push birds 
     
     considerably out of their normal ranges, I was expecting to hear of some 
     
     unusual sightings but the description of this bird, a goose with a white head 
     
     with two black bars on the back of its head and a mostly gray, barred body, 
     
     had me perplexed. Geoff indicated that, when Mr. MacCaull and another neighbour 
     
     could not find the goose in North American field guides, they started a search 
     
     of other books and came up with an old encyclopedia illustration of a “barred” 
     
     goose. The questions posed were, "Is this a barred goose?" and "If so, where 
     
     did it come from?”. The latter question was raised because the bird could fly 
     
     very well and had no bands to indicate it was a captive bird. Furthermore, the 
     
     Fish and wildlife Division did not know of any such geese on Prince Edward 
     
     Island. 
     
    

    
     Well, I figured the best way to tackle this one 
     
     was to take each question in order. I had never heard 
     
     of a barred goose and the description of a large grey 
     
     goose with strong barring on the side and a white head 
     
     with bars didn't bring birds to mind. As they had a 
     
     tentative name, I checked it out first in Peterson's 
     
     Field Guide to the Eastern Birds, then in Tuft's Birds 
     
     of Nova Scotia, and finally in Godfrey's The Birds of 
     
     [é Canada. All to no avail. Neither the name or a bird 
     
    

    
     fitting the description was present. It was The 
     
     Larouse Guide to Birds of Britain and Europe 
     
     that finally yielded an illustration that seemed to fit, namely, the Bar-headed 
     
     Goose. This book noted that "escapes of this Asiatic goose were sometimes met 
     
     with, usually in the company of other grey geese". While the author qualified 
     
     it "as easily told from other geese“ the size description did not seem to fit 
     
     the bird's description. The search now led to waterfowl books for the world and 
     
     there were none of these in my collection. A phone call to Donald Wilkinson 
     
     helped out as he had Sir Peter Scott's book on the waterfowl of the world. It 
     
     provided an illustration of the bird and showed no other similar geese with 
     
     these markings. Several days later, conversations with Geoff Hogan and Ray 
     
     Cooke and the consultations of other books indicated that the bird was indeed a 
     
     Bar-headed Goose. Thanks to Geoff and Dorothy Robinson and George MacCaull, I 
     
     was able to view a video of the bird taken by Geoff and then to view and 
     
     photograph the bird. _ 
     
    

    
     The second question on where the bird originated now became important. The 
     
     sighting of a "proven wild" Bar-headed Goose would bring birders from all over. 
     
     The bird could fly very well. It was nervous and took to flight very quickly 
     
     unless it was with the other geese. When it was with the other geese it could 
     
     be pushed by walking slowly behind the flock. This trait is often exhibited by 
     
     wild Canada Geese of the year. Because this bird breeds in the Himalaya 
     
     Mountains and overwinters in southern India and Sri Lanka, the likelihood of it 
     
     being an escapee was very high. Efforts to contact Hollis MacFadyen of the Nest 
     
     Prince Bird Conservatory in Inverness to see if he did possess Bar-headed Geese 
     
    
   
   
    
       
     
    
   
   
    
       
     
    
   
   
    
       
     
    
   
   
    
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