Ross’s Goose (Chen rossi) Nesting Colony at East Bay, Southampton Island, Nunavut
Date
2016-01-01
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
The Canadian Field-Naturalist
Abstract
Most Ross’s Geese (Chen rossi) nest in the central arctic of North America, but the range has expanded eastward in the last two decades. In summer 2014, we discovered a cluster of 48 nesting pairs of Ross’s Geese at East Bay Migratory Bird Sanctuary,Southampton Island, Nunavut. The Ross’s Goose colony was between an upland Lesser Snow Goose (Chen caerulescens caerulescens) nesting area and a low-lying Cackling Goose (Branta hutchinsii) and Atlantic Brant (Branta bernicla) nesting area, in a zone dominated by ponds and lakes and interspersed with areas of moss and graminoids. Our discovery documents a previously unknown level of nesting of Ross’s Geese at East Bay and corroborates unpublished evidence of growing numbers of the species on Southampton Island and expansion of its breeding range.
Description
This article was originally published in Canadian Field-Naturalist. The version of record is available at: https://doi.org/10.22621/cfn.v130i1.1786. Copyright for Canadian Field-Naturalist content is held by the Ottawa Field-Naturalists' Club, except for content published by employees of federal government departments, in which case the copyright is held by the Crown. In-copyright content available at the Biodiversity Heritage Library is available for re-use under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) licence. For usage of content at the BHL for purposes other than those allowed under this licence, contact Canadian Field-Naturalist.
Keywords
Ross’s Goose, Chen rossi, nesting, Southampton Island, East Bay Migratory Bird Sanctuary, Nunavut, life on land
Citation
Nissley, Clark, Christopher Williams, and Kenneth F. Abraham. “Ross’s Goose (Chen Rossi) Nesting Colony at East Bay, Southampton Island, Nunavut.” The Canadian Field-Naturalist 130, no. 1 (January 1, 2016): 22. https://doi.org/10.22621/cfn.v130i1.1786.