Not long after that, a researcher from Denmark contacted Swain and identified the goose as one of 42 that were banded in 2008 for research in Greenland on the decline of the white-fronted goose population.
“It was very cool,’’ said Swain, who is an associate professor of English at Southern New Hampshire University in Manchester, N.H.
Geese that were banded in Greenland have also been sighted at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, in South Egremont and in Sheffield.
That a goose flew almost 2,000 miles, much of it across the Gulf of Labrador, is nothing new. But that Canada geese, whose species is relatively new to Greenland, appear to have widened their territory to Massachusetts tells a different story, perhaps one of global warming, said H.W. Heusmann, a wildlife biologist at the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife.
With a gradual warming of the climate, Heusmann said, geese are not wintering as far south.
“Wildlife is ahead of the curve when it comes to global warming,’’ he said.
Wayne R. Petersen, director of the Massachusetts Important Bird Areas Program for the Massachusetts Audubon Society, said that in the past birds from Greenland did not migrate to North America. They migrated exclusively to Europe. The Concord goose represents a new migration route.
“A change in migration pathways may be an indication of climate change,’’ Petersen said. “The Concord goose gives us a heads-up on the comings and goings of other rare birds.’’
Petersen said other birds that are increasingly spotted in Massachusetts include the barnacle goose and the pink-footed goose, both of which breed in Greenland, Iceland, and Sweden. These geese are possibly also modifying their migration, Petersen said. Sightings of birds rarely spotted in Massachusetts might not be so unusual in coming years.
Canada geese first showed up in Greenland in the 1980s and are believed to be a contributor to the decline of the rare Greenland white-fronted goose. The number of white-fronted geese has dipped dramatically, while the Canada goose population has exploded in Greenland, as it did in Massachusetts.
