Word has it over 50 thousand sandhill cranes have assembled at the
Ewing Bottoms in Indiana, just above Louisville KY. This is north of
Ohio's southernmost latitudes, but in the modern era our state has no
comparable numbers. It seems we're a bit too far east to suit most
cranes. Still, we should expect to see smaller numbers of migrants here now.
        Virginia's first osprey of 2008 was reported three days ago; I believe
Ohio's earliest record of spring migrants comes from 8 Mar 2002, when 13
were seen over Conneaut. There are four 9 Mar records, from Hamilton,
Guernsey, Clermont, and Warren counties.  Parts of Virginia are farther
north than parts of Ohio, but I suspect salt marshes and the  Atlantic
itself permit northbound ospreys to find food much earlier there.
        Finally, some caveats on white-cheeked geese. Reports of cackling geese
are increasing as birders examine goose flocks with more care. There are
good reasons why they are asked to document these sightings. Cackling
geese come in four subspecies, and with a couple of interesting
exceptions, Ohio records all seem to be Branta h. hutchinsii, a form
well-known for over a hundred years as "Richardson's Canada goose." It
is a large subspecies of cackling goose.
        There are seven subspecies of the even larger Canada goose. The largest
is B. canadensis maxima, our all-too-familiar semi-domesticated
nonmigratory form.  The smaller B. c. interior, a wild subspecies that
nests largely in James Bay, is the commonest migrant here. You can
usually pick these out in a mixed goose flock by size alone; neck
collars on these birds are orange when they're wearing one. The smallest
subspecies of the Canada goose, sometimes called the "lesser Canada
goose," is B. c. parvipes. This form, while it does not overlap in
measurements with B. h. hutchinsii, represents the likeliest source of
confusion between the two species in Ohio.  Have a look at the first
photo at
http://www.idahobirds.net/identification/white-cheeked/subspecies.html
to see how close they are.  David Sibley has a good discussion at
http://www.sibleyguides.com/canada_cackling.htm  .
        I was able to verify this with museum specimens the other day. I laid
side by side interior Canadas, parvipes Canadas, and a hutchinsii
cackling; it was obvious that the four parvipes geese, when compared
with the interiors, shared with the hutchinsii many of the
characteristics mentioned in reports of cackling geese: markedly shorter
necks, obviously smaller body size, and smaller bills than the interior
(and of course maxima) forms. Yes, the hutchinsii was smaller than the
parvipes, but in comparison with the interior alone it was easy to see
someone calling the latter a cackling because of its size. Beyond
overall size, the major difference separating the cackling and the
'lesser Canada goose' was the shape of the forehead; in the cackling
goose it was obviously steeper and shorter. See a comparison photo at
http://pioneerbirding.blogspot.com/2008/02/cackling-and-canada-goose-selection.html
        I don't know of any parvipes specimens from Ohio. Some photos have been
made public of birds from Ohio that may have been parvipes. I do know it
is not enough to identify a goose as a cackling because it is much
smaller overall than accompanying geese (no B. h. hutchinsii is really
'the size of a mallard'), has a shorter neck, or a steeper forehead
profile. If parvipes geese come through Ohio these days, many may be
misidentified as cackling geese.
        This is one reason our Records Committee asks for documentation of
cackling geese, tiresome as it may seem to produce it. There is another
reason: new goose species may be proposed, and we will have to
re-examine old records. The AOU has stated that future splits may be in
the offing: "Several genetic studies of geese, including recent work
with mitochondrial DNA...have verified previous suggestions based on
differences in voice, nesting habits, habitat, and timing of migration,
as well as in color and size, that the forms treated as the single
species Branta canadensis by all previous AOU Check-lists and most other
works actually constitute at least two species, and further that each of
the two species may be more closely related to another member of the
genus than to each other. Thus, we divide B. canadensis by recognizing a
set of smaller-bodied forms as the species B. hutchinsii...Additional
analysis may result in further splitting." [45th Supplement, 2004, pp.
987-88]
        Sorry if the goose part is a bit technical, but you have to admit it's
good to have a reason to sort through the goose flocks we used to ignore...
Bill Whan
Columbus





______________________________________________________________________

Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society.
Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list.
Additional discussions can be found in our forums, at www.ohiobirds.org/forum/.

You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at:
http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS
Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]