California's Great Goose Lineup: Ross's Geese
A few days ago, I wrote about the impending arrival of large flocks of Snow Geese in the Central Valley. And while hundreds of thousands of white (or "light," as they used to be known) geese descend on the valley, blanketing our local fields and wetlands in snowy drifts, I would be remiss if I let you assume they are all Snow Geese.
In fact, some of the snowy white geese that will be showing up in the Valley this fall and winter are not Snow Geese at all, but their smaller cousin, the Ross's Goose (Anser rossii).
Discovered in the late 1700's by arctic explorer Samuel Hearne, the Ross's Goose was originally dubbed the "Horned Wavey." (It's likely that the term "wavey" came from the Cree word for goose.)
In 1795, Hearne wrote,
Nearly 100 years after its initial discovery, the "Horned Wavey" was officially described for science for the first time by ornithologist John Cassin, at which time it was rechristened the Ross's Goose, after Bernard Rogan Ross, a Hudson's Bay Company clerk and trader who also worked as a naturalist. He was responsible for collecting the first specimen of a Ross's Goose to be preserved in a museum, and also sent hundreds of other specimens, along with detailed notes, to the Smithsonian and the British Museum.
The first time I saw a Ross's Goose was on a mild, sunshiny February day at the Merced Wildlife Refuge (nothing like conditions faced by 18th century arctic explorers, I'm sure!) I was participating in a guided birding tour of the wetlands, and was awestruck by the sheer numbers of waterfowl, the thousands upon endless thousands of white geese covering the water and filling the skies. While I was trying to take it all in, our leader excitedly informed us, "Besides the Snow Geese, we might even be able to see some Ross's Geese today! Let's see if we can pick them out!" I was initially overawed by the seemingly impossible task of picking out the few white geese which were supposedly somehow different from the thousands of other white geese. But, like my arctic-explorer predecessors, I am observant and keen to learn (though admittedly far less hardy in the cold!)
Now, telling them apart (from a close enough distance) is second nature. When someone asks how to distinguish a Ross's Goose from a Snow Goose, I have to remember what it was like before I just knew.
True, both species are white with black wingtips and pinkish-orange bills, but the Snow Goose has a larger bill with a prominent black "grin patch" that is lacking on the smaller, more conical bill of the Ross's Goose. (As a big fan of the BBC and PBS, I came up with a corny way to remember the difference: broody, reckless Ross Poldark doesn't smile (much), so the Ross's Goose doesn't have the "grin patch." I told you it was terrible!) Additionally, the smaller features, rounded head and stubby bill give the Ross's Goose a distinctly "cute" look that is lacking in the Snow Goose. (I won't press my mnemonic device any further...)
Once you become familiar with Snow and Ross's Geese, you will start to get a feel for their differences and agree with me that they do indeed look completely different! (Unless, of course, you're watching them from a great distance or in flight... then they really are very difficult, if not impossible, to tell apart! And I suppose it doesn't help to tell you that they are known to hybridize with Snow Geese!)
Ross's Geese breed in the Canadian Arctic, largely in the Queen Maud Gulf Migratory Bird Sanctuary, as well as on islands in the Arctic Sea such as Baffin Island and Southampton Island, and along the southwest coasts of the Hudson Bay. While some birds overwinter in Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Texas and even northern Mexico, the main wintering location for the majority of Ross's Geese is California's Great Central Valley.
In the early 1900's, when open market hunting (the hunting of wild waterfowl for sale at market, with very little regulation) was booming in California, numbers of Ross's Geese began to drop, reaching a low of around 2,000 to 3,000 individuals in 1950. Hunting restrictions, combined with habitat restoration and increased food availability (farmers and wildlife refuges work together to plant grain specifically as feed for overwintering geese), brought the population numbers back up, to more than 2 million individuals today. As is the case with Snow Geese, population controls (i.e. hunting) are now required to ensure that an overabundance of geese doesn't irreparably damage the fragile arctic wetland breeding habitat.
On their wintering grounds, Ross's Geese associate freely with Lesser Snow Geese (the subspecies that winters in California) as well as Cackling Geese, where the species forage together for grasses, sedges and grains. I highly recommend a visit to one of the Sacramento or San Joaquin Valley's National Wildlife Refuges this winter, to see these impressive birds for yourself!
In fact, some of the snowy white geese that will be showing up in the Valley this fall and winter are not Snow Geese at all, but their smaller cousin, the Ross's Goose (Anser rossii).
Discovered in the late 1700's by arctic explorer Samuel Hearne, the Ross's Goose was originally dubbed the "Horned Wavey." (It's likely that the term "wavey" came from the Cree word for goose.)
In 1795, Hearne wrote,
"Horned Wavey. This delicate and diminutive species of the Goose is not much larger than the Mallard Duck. Its plumage is delicately white, except the quill-feathers, which are black. The bill is not more than an inch long, and at the base is studded round with little knobs about the size of peas, but more remarkably so in the males... About two or three hundred miles to the North West of Churchill, I have seen them in as large flocks as the Common Wavey, or Snow Goose."
(Quote from Hearne S (1795) A Journey From Prince Wales's Fort in Hudson's Bay to the Northern Ocean.)
Nearly 100 years after its initial discovery, the "Horned Wavey" was officially described for science for the first time by ornithologist John Cassin, at which time it was rechristened the Ross's Goose, after Bernard Rogan Ross, a Hudson's Bay Company clerk and trader who also worked as a naturalist. He was responsible for collecting the first specimen of a Ross's Goose to be preserved in a museum, and also sent hundreds of other specimens, along with detailed notes, to the Smithsonian and the British Museum.
The first time I saw a Ross's Goose was on a mild, sunshiny February day at the Merced Wildlife Refuge (nothing like conditions faced by 18th century arctic explorers, I'm sure!) I was participating in a guided birding tour of the wetlands, and was awestruck by the sheer numbers of waterfowl, the thousands upon endless thousands of white geese covering the water and filling the skies. While I was trying to take it all in, our leader excitedly informed us, "Besides the Snow Geese, we might even be able to see some Ross's Geese today! Let's see if we can pick them out!" I was initially overawed by the seemingly impossible task of picking out the few white geese which were supposedly somehow different from the thousands of other white geese. But, like my arctic-explorer predecessors, I am observant and keen to learn (though admittedly far less hardy in the cold!)
Now, telling them apart (from a close enough distance) is second nature. When someone asks how to distinguish a Ross's Goose from a Snow Goose, I have to remember what it was like before I just knew.
True, both species are white with black wingtips and pinkish-orange bills, but the Snow Goose has a larger bill with a prominent black "grin patch" that is lacking on the smaller, more conical bill of the Ross's Goose. (As a big fan of the BBC and PBS, I came up with a corny way to remember the difference: broody, reckless Ross Poldark doesn't smile (much), so the Ross's Goose doesn't have the "grin patch." I told you it was terrible!) Additionally, the smaller features, rounded head and stubby bill give the Ross's Goose a distinctly "cute" look that is lacking in the Snow Goose. (I won't press my mnemonic device any further...)
Once you become familiar with Snow and Ross's Geese, you will start to get a feel for their differences and agree with me that they do indeed look completely different! (Unless, of course, you're watching them from a great distance or in flight... then they really are very difficult, if not impossible, to tell apart! And I suppose it doesn't help to tell you that they are known to hybridize with Snow Geese!)
Ross's Geese breed in the Canadian Arctic, largely in the Queen Maud Gulf Migratory Bird Sanctuary, as well as on islands in the Arctic Sea such as Baffin Island and Southampton Island, and along the southwest coasts of the Hudson Bay. While some birds overwinter in Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Texas and even northern Mexico, the main wintering location for the majority of Ross's Geese is California's Great Central Valley.
In the early 1900's, when open market hunting (the hunting of wild waterfowl for sale at market, with very little regulation) was booming in California, numbers of Ross's Geese began to drop, reaching a low of around 2,000 to 3,000 individuals in 1950. Hunting restrictions, combined with habitat restoration and increased food availability (farmers and wildlife refuges work together to plant grain specifically as feed for overwintering geese), brought the population numbers back up, to more than 2 million individuals today. As is the case with Snow Geese, population controls (i.e. hunting) are now required to ensure that an overabundance of geese doesn't irreparably damage the fragile arctic wetland breeding habitat.
On their wintering grounds, Ross's Geese associate freely with Lesser Snow Geese (the subspecies that winters in California) as well as Cackling Geese, where the species forage together for grasses, sedges and grains. I highly recommend a visit to one of the Sacramento or San Joaquin Valley's National Wildlife Refuges this winter, to see these impressive birds for yourself!
Comments
Post a Comment