I’ve been spending a bit of time at Tarnacre Quarry recently. This is partly because it’s just off the A586 when I’m headed for Barrow and partly because there’s a lot of birds there. Mostly feral geese to be honest, but they’re still birds and something to look at.
A fortnight ago among the Canadas was a Barnacle Goose associating with a rather funky hybrid. From experience I know that birds with the combination of white head and black neck are often thought to be Emperor X Barnacle, though the was this one was always following the Barnacle and a Canada Goose around did make me wonder.
Some sounding out of hybrid experts on the Birdforum website suggested that my original assessment was indeed correct. A view of the legs was going to be helpful, and on a subsequent visit the bird was on the bank briefly showing the greeny-yellow colour expected of this hybrid.
Having seen the bird and Barnacle chum several times over a number of visits it was something of a surprise to see it joined by another hybrid yesterday. Although they aren’t identical they are clearly adult birds of the same hybrid.
There were a couple of these wintering on the South Ribble marshes, so it seems likely these are those birds. In which case it’s rather surprising to discover they aren’t always moving around together, but presumably they’re never too far apart either.
In terms of origins there were Emperor Geese on Piel Island which became free flying, and one of these certainly paired with a Barnacle several years ago. But those birds are long gone so it’s more than likely these are from another source. Below is an image from Wikipedia Commons by Lisa Hupp for those readers unfamiliar with this charming goose which in the wild is restricted to Alaska and Bering Straits Russia.
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