Saturday, June 23, 2012

Snow Goose in Kaua'i!

Aloha from Kaua'i!  Yesterday Gaby and I went birding on Ohiki Road on the Hanalei National Wildlife Refuge.  While I was photographing young Common Gallinules, Gaby said, "Hey what's that white goose over there with the other ones?"  I turned around, saw the Snow Goose, and immediately got some photos.  I knew it was rare since right now they're on their breeding grounds in the Arctic.  According to my field guide, The Birds of Hawaii and the Tropical Pacific (Pratt, Bruner, and Berrett), Snow Goose is casual to the Hawaiian Islands.  I found no June eBird records for all of Hawai'i.  Great job Gaby!  Stay tuned for many more birds from paradise...

Snow Goose with Hawaiian Geese
CERange Map for Snow Goose

5 comments:

  1. Ha! That's great. That Goose looks pretty proud of itself too, as if he knows he's now finally made himself stand out from the thousands of Snow Gesee elsewhere.

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    1. Pretty smart bird if you ask me- it's one of the most gorgeous places on the planet, it has plenty of cousins to show it around, and no predators!

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  2. Awesome find Jeremy, but I have to admit I am much more jealous of the other geese in the photo.

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  3. Aloha! I got to visit Hawaii back in 2005 when I was pretty new into birding. I saw several life birds there, but wish I could go back now. I'll just live vicariously through you for now.

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