I have to disagree in the case of wintering geese. I don't keep tabs on every rare goose that turns up on Long Island. I best remember those on the western part of the island, especially those that I've photographed. Looking at my records of photographed rarities (and even Snow Geese in unusual places), and to the best of my recollection otherwise, I can't find examples of geese that have returned to the same site in a following winter - but for one exception. This was the believed to be Brant - Cackling Goose hybrid that returned to Flushing Meadows for many years. What's more, it appears to me that geese will relocate during the same winter. Lots of examples of rarities first appearing at a site in mid-winter, while others disappear.
That said, it should be expected that in highly favored congregation points - a Belmont Lake for example - more total geese would lead to a greater chance of a same rare species reoccurrence (which might or might not be the same individual). One could also pay attention to banded Canada Geese. I sort of do, but I don't have well organized records to refer to at the moment. Steve Walter -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME.htm http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES.htm http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) http://birding.aba.org/maillist/NY01 Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
