VA Birders,
I know many of you have been patiently waiting to find out the results
from VARCOM for the Barnacle Goose that was seen in Northern Virginia in
Jan/Feb 2002. This submission took three rounds of voting before a
concensus could be reached, thus the delay in posting the results. That
concensus was to accept the bird as a category three sighting. Category
three means, basically, that the committee is in agreement that the bird
was a Barnacle Goose but that the origin of the bird is in question.
There are three other Barnacle Goose records in the VARCOM database and
they are all accepted as category three sightings as well.
Because Barnacle Geese are commonly kept in captivity, records
committees are reluctanct to accept sightings as wild birds without some
precident for doing so. In the winter of 2002, there were several
Barnacle Goose sightings on the east coast but I do not know the outcome
of these sightings if they were submitted to the appropriate records
committee. However, it is important to continue to submit documentation
on birds that fit this category, as in the future, a researcher may look
back and see a pattern of vagrancy for this species that was not
apparent at the time. If that should happen, VARCOM may decide to
re-evaluate species accepted in this category to determine if they
should be moved to category one or two.
Thanks to all those who submitted details for sightings on this bird.
All will be notified via letter of the outcome of this record.
Sue
Secretary, Virginia Avian Records Committee
You are subscribed to VA-BIRD. To post to this mailing list, simply send email
to va-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx. To unsubscribe, send email to
va-bird-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field.
