Pioneer Birding: MA - small, dark Canada Geese in Whately

Monday, October 7, 2019

MA - small, dark Canada Geese in Whately

Canada Goose - small, dark individual among Atlantic Canada Geese, Whately, Franklin Co., MA. October 7th, 2019.

It's been a relatively slow start to the goose migration in the Pioneer Valley. Although migrants have been arriving it's been more of a steady build rather than a sudden incursion of hundreds of birds, something which we quite often see at this time of year. But, it's still early in the month and presumably we can look forward to some large arrivals over the next 10 days or so.

Canada Geese - dark individuals amid Atlantic Canada Geese, Whately, Franklin Co., MA. October 7th, 2019.

This looked more like a family group of dark birds, perhaps too dark side for Hudson Bay Canada Goose B.c. interior?

Canada Geese - large, white breasted birds showing characteristics of Atlantic Canada Goose (B. c. canadenis), Whately, Franklin Co., MA. October 7th, 2019.

Canada Goose - small, dark individual amid Atlantic Canada Geese, Whately, Franklin Co., MA. October 7th, 2019.

Same individual as above.

I did find a flock of geese at Tri-town Beach, Whately and at least six individuals, possibly from two different family groups, caught my attention in being exceptionally small and dark. I am used to seeing a lot of variation within Canada Geese in the Pioneer Valley and at this time of year we tend to get two, fairly distinct forms; Atlantic Canada Goose (B.c. canadensis) which are typically large, pale gray-brown and white/pale breasted, and Hudson Bay Canada Goose (B.c. interior) which tend to be darker, browner and more dusky in appearance with a darker breast and appear to average quite a bit smaller in size than Atlantic Canada Goose. With this in mind, I tend to be quite careful about variation within Canada Goose flocks but today's birds really did stand out as being exceptionally dark to the point where I'm pretty sure that I haven't encountered anything like these locally before. I'm not sure what they are, or how to account for the very dark appearance but I'm hoping that posting a few images will draw some attention to these very interesting geese. And for those interested, some essential reading on Distinguishing Cackling and Canada Geese by David Sibley can be found here;
https://www.sibleyguides.com/2007/07/identification-of-cackling-and-canada-goose/

Elsewhere in the valley, well warm, muggy rain showers came back today after a relatively cool weekend bringing 9 Green-winged Teal, 6 Pectoral Sandpipers and 1 Least Sandpiper to Hell's Kitchen in Northfield. And there was a surprise Vesper Sparrow very briefly on the sod fields at Caldwell Road, Northfield.