Notes on the South Atlantic Canada Goose Population
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BIRD-BANDING A JOURNALOF ORNITHOLOGICAL]NYESTIGATION VOL. XXIII JANUARY,1952 No. 1 NOTES ON THE SOUTH ATLANTI.C CANADA GOOSE POPULATION BY HAROLd) C. HANSON AND RICHARD E. GRIFFITH Recent studies (Williams, 1945; Hanson and Smith, 1950) have shownthat each of the four main flywaysin North America contains two or more distinctpopulations of Canadageese, Branta canadensis (Linnaeus). In a comprehensivereport on the Canada geeseof the Mississippiflyway population, Hanson and Smith (1950) describedthe rangeof a distinct,heretofore unrecognized population, the Southeast population,that wintersin the inland regi.onsof the southe.astern states. It also outlined in brief the rangesof two other populationswhich winter on the Atlantic seaboard, the North Atlantic and the South Atlantic populations. BecauseCanada geese tend to be segregatedby distinct population groupingswith strict adherenceto individual breedingand wintering ranges,these birds are particularlyadapted to effectivemanagement by populationgroups. For this reason,there is specialmerit in careful identificationand study of thesepopulations. Thi.sreport dealsprimarily with the geeseof the South Atlantic population,but data and mapsshowing recent unpublished recoveries from the Mississippiand Southeastpopulations are also includedfor comparative purposes. MATERIALS AND METHODS The nucleusof this report is providedby the .bandingand recovery records of the Jack Miner Migratory Bird Sanctuary located near Kingsville,Ontario. The recoveryrecords consist chiefly of the original letters received from hunters in the United States and Canada and from missionaries and fur traders in the far North. The records of Canada geesebanded at the Jack Miner Sanctuary in autumn, the majority of which were of geesebelonging to the MississippiFlyway and the Southeastpopulation, were analyzedfor the MississippiFly- way report. The recoveriesof Canada geesebanded at the Miner Sanctuaryin spring, chiefly of the South Atlantic population,are treatedhere. Repliesto questionnairessent by Hansont,o the principal fur trade posts around Hudson and James Bays in 1947, provided additional valuable information about conditions on the breeding grounds. Information on wintering groundsand populationsis •based mainly on personalknowledge and data obtainedfrom the files of the Branch of Refuges,U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS For permissionto study the Miner records,we are indebtedto Manley Miner, Presidentof the JackMiner Migratory Bird Foundation, Inc., acting in behalf of the Miner family and the Miner Foundation. 2] HANSON,GalrrlT•, Canada Goose Population Bird-Banding January Vol. XXIII 1952 HANSON,GRIFFITH, Canada Goose Population [3 H U D S 0 N B A Y BELCHER Whole R. L E G E N D JAMES g TWIt I-Eskimo Point 12-Eastmain o] is. 2- Churchill 13-Old Factory 3-York Factory 14-FI. George 4-Ft Severn 15-Great Whale River 5-Weenusk IG-Port Harrison G-Lake River 17-Povungnituk 7-Attawopiskot 18-Cope Smith 8-Akimiski Island 19-Walstenholme 9-Ft. Albany 20-CopeHenrietta Mori, 10-Moose Factory 21-Cape Jones II-Rupert House 22-Ogoki 23-R•chmond Gulf Fig. l.--Map showinglocation of principal fur trade posts in the H.dson-James Bays area. We are appreciativeof the official co-operationextended by Dr. Harrison F. Lewis and T. S. Hennesseyof the Canadian Wildlife Serviceof the Canada Department,of Resourcesand Development; and by Dr. ClarenceCottam and Mr. Frederick C. Lincoln, of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. For supplementarydata on populationsand kills we are indebted as follows: for New York, A. W. Holweg; for Pennsylvania,Thomas D. Frye; for New Jersey,L. G. MacNamara; and for North .Carolina, T. Stuart Critcher. HANSON,GRIFFITH, Canada Goose Population Bird-BandingJanuary BREEDING RANGE Our knowledgeof the breedingrange ,of the SouthAtlantic population is basedon a comparativestudy of the recoveriesfrom bandingsat HorseshoeLake, Illinois; the Miner Sanctuary,Kingsville, Ontario (Hanson and Smith, 1950); Earleville, Maryland; and Lake Matta- muskeet,North Carolina, Ta.ble 1. These rec,overyrecords indicate that the range of the South Atlantic populationincludes suitable areas inland from the east coastof Jamesand HudsonBays, from perhaps as far southas the Rupert River north to W,olstenholme. Fig. 1. The BelcherIslands in HudsonBay and the Twin Islandsin central James Bay are believedto lie within the breedingrange of this flock as possiblyalso do portionsof southernBarfin Island. The main rangeeast of JamesBay may be confinedto the relatively low coastalplain that extendsinland for a distanceof about 60 miles. Low (1896 p. 324) writesin regardto the Canadagoose: "... abundant on the East Main River . especiallyon lower part, where the river is cut out of clays, with good bottomlands;breeds in large numbers on the islandsof JamesBay." Few band recoverieshave been obtainedfrom the countrylying betweenCape Jonesand the RichmondGulf area, fig. 1, the reason being that this region apparently does not afford either attractive feedingor nestinggrounds. Consequently, few geeseare killed in this sector. Whereasthe coastof JamesBay from Rupert Bay to Cape Jonesis low and undulatingand offers a number of feeding areas attractive to migrating geese, the coast of Hudson Bay from the neighborhoodof CapeJones to CapeDufferin is of a differentcharacter, the land being higher and more unevenand rising gradually as it extendsnorthward, becomingrugged and precipitousat the head of ManitounukSound (Bell, 1879). This coastline,as w,ould be expected, affordsno feedingareas for geese.In a letter to Jack Miner (Dec. 20, 1918) L. G. Mayer, then a r•ostmanager at Great Whale, related that few geesewere killed at Great Whale becausethere were no feeding placesalong that sectorof the coast and that the geesemade their autumn flights in his area over water. From the descriptionsgiven by geologists(Bell, 1879; Low, 1888, 1902), largesectors of the country lying inland from the lower half of the east coast of Hudson Bay are apparentlytoo high, rugged, and barren to afford ideal nesting habitat for Canada geese. Reportsof residentsat Povungnitukand Port Harrison.the accounts of explorers (Low, 1902; Rousseau,1948), and band recoveries,all point t,o the presenceof large numbersof Canada geesebreeding throughoutthe UngavaPeninsula. This beliefwas recently substantiated by Eklund and Cool (1949). In an aerial surveyof waterfowlpopula- tions in the central sectionsof the Ungava Peninsula,they found the highest populationsof Canada geese between the Koguluk and PovungnitukRivers. There, they obtained a count of 2.1 geeseper mile as comparedwith over-all averagesfor tundra of 0.21 and 0.17 geeseper mile of rivers and lakes, respectively.Their finding of a high populationof Canadageese between these two adjacentrivers in Ungava is at leastreminiscent of the relation of CanadaGoose produe- Vol. XXIiI 1952 HAh•ON,GRIFFITH, Canada Goose Population [5 tion centersto rivers in Northern Ontario (Hanson and Smith 1950). Adequatedescriptions of the exactnature of the interior of the Un- gava Peninsulaare scarcebecause few peoplehave traversedthe in- terior. As Flaherty t1918, p. 124) stated,knowledge of this country "is derivedsolely from the informationof the Eskimo. Accordingto them it is, generallyspeaking, a rolling plateau of low, long-sloping hills, everywhereintersected by countlessthousands of lakes and con- nectingstreams." On the BelcherIslands, large numbers of Canadageese nest, particu- larly along a V-shapedlake, 65 miles long, on Flaherty Island (letter from Jack Tryer to Jack Miner, date unknown). A portion of the breedingrange of Canadageese on southernBarfin Island may be considereda part of the range of the South Atlantic population,particularly the westerlyportions of the southerncoast, althoughthe speciesis known to nest "more or lessuniformly all the way along the southerncoast from Gabriel Strait to Cape Dorset. re- sortingto islandsas well as mainland" t Soper1946, p. 17). The Net- tilling Lake Eskimoshave reportedthat many Canadaand other kinds of geeseare to be found in the regionof AmadjuakLake and along the river of the samename (letter from Arnold C. Herbert to JackMiner, April 3, 1939,}. A goosebanded by the Miners in the springof 1927 and shotat AmadjuakLake lendscredence to the reportby thesenatives, but it shouldbe pointedout that it may be principallythe non-breeding geesewhich frequent the areaslying north of the main breedingrange on the mainland. Canada geeseare also reportedto nest 15 miles inland from Lake Harbour along the Soper River (ConstableDaoust, R.C.M.P., Hanson questionnaire,1947, Soper 1946). The Canada geeseof the South Atlantic populationwhich nest on the BelcherIslands and inlandfrom the eastcoast of HudsonBay as far as the heightof land are a part of a singlerecognizable population, the race B.c. interior, Todd (1938). MIGRATION Prior to the timesouthward migration occurs, there are localflights to inlandlakes for the purposeof .molting.A. Lunan,former post managerat Port Harrison, recentlystated t personalcommunication. 1949• that there were flights of Canadageese into the tundra lakes of thePort Harrisonregion from the southin earlyJune, reportedly for thepurpose of molting.Flights of Canadageese into this regionfrom areasnorth of Port Harrisonhave also been observed. According to the Rev. H. S. Shepherd,Canada geese have appearedat favoredlakes in the Port Harrisondistrict about the end of July, with the movement extendinginto August. On theirautumn migration, the geese