Greylag goose gatecrashes a winter party in a southern estuary

Two members of this species show up at the Adyar Estuary in Chennai. Though strongly suggestive of vagrancy, this brief appearance cannot be dismissed out of hand as just that 

Every so often, a bird species takes the wind out of our sails and forces us to turn the compass over and revise long-cherished inferences about its behaviour. For long, the Krishna river was considered the Rubicon the Asian pied starling would never cross. But it did cross the Rubicon in style, necessitating a hurried revision of its distribution map. This resident species is now decidedly at home in certain parts of Tamil Nadu. Among migratorial wintering species, the grey-headed lapwing wrote a range-expansion script long ago and enacted it to perfection.

Given this backdrop, the recent sighting of two greylag geese in the waters of the Adyar esturay cannot be dismissed out of hand as a case of vagrancy. On November 15, ornithologist-conservationist Tara Gandhi watched two greylag geese from a walking track at Theosophical Society (TS), her eyes popping out in delightful disbelief.

With Tara promptly alerting Geetha Jaikumar, a member of Madras Naturalists’ Society (MNS) who is domiciled on the TS campus, photographic documentation of the greylag goose’s presence emerged two days later. Geetha’s camera had managed to capture one of the geese, and as the bird was beyond range, the photos presented a hazy but unmistakable image of the bird.

A flurry of emails followed. Almost on first impulse, Tara had written to ornithologist V Santharam, who had had the Adyar estuary for a stomping ground before moving to Rishi Valley. Santharam’s field notes from the estuary, stretching on from the late-1970s, drew a blank on the greylag goose. The ornithilogist however confirmed the bird in the photos to be a greylag goose. Tara also wrote to S Balachandran of BNHS’s bird ringing station at Point Calimere, and he wrote back recalling an earlier citing of two greylag geese, three years ago, at Koonthankulam.

There have been other diffuse sightings across Tamil Nadu. “In December 2020, there was a photographic record of a lone greylag goose sighting at Yedaiyanthittu estuary near Marakannam,” says Santharam. “Earlier, in February 2008, a single bird had been seen for a week at Karaivetti bird sanctuary in Ariyalur district. In March 2013, at Valinokkam in Ramanathapuram district, there was another sighting. In addition to the greylag goose sighting from Koonthankulam reported by Balachandran, there were two sightings in the same location — one in January 2017, and the other in March 2018. In January 2021, there was a sighting at Sivandipatti lake in Tirunelveli district.”

Following the photographic documentation of the greylag goose on November 17, members of Madras Naturalists’ Society (MNS), including G Vijay Kumar, honorary secretary and Umesh Mani, senior member, made a beeline to the hallowed spot. The greylag geese stood them up, conjuring up the possibility of the estuary being a pit stop on the way to a more favoured winter sojourn. Balachandran and Santharam suggest this apperance should be considered a case of vagrancy until proved otherwise.

Though there is not sufficient evidence of winter-range expansion yet, it cannot be ruled out entirely either. Based on data, the greylag goose winters in parts of North India, being seen up to Orissa and occasionally a little beyond that, on the East; and in Gujarat on the West.