Recent decisions by the Illinois Ornithological Records Committee (IORC) resulted in the addition of Barnacle Goose as the 445th species on the official Illinois State List of birds. The record that added Barnacle Goose to the list involved the bird found by Andrew Aldrich on 27 November 2012 in Oswego, Kendall County and subsequently seen through 16 December 2012 at various Kane County, Kendall County, and Will County locations. For any record to accepted by IORC, six or seven of the Voting Members of the committee must vote positively. This case merited six positive votes, with one dissenting vote cast on the basis of origin.
The set of records recently evaluated by IORC included seven involving Barnacle Goose. Because the question of origin in addition to that of identification arises in cases of Barnacle Geese, and because potential first state records attract extra scrutiny, the documentation of each of these seven observations needed to be particularly strong to garner acceptance. Three of the records did not make the cut, one on the basis of identification and the other two on the basis of origin. Three records will be circulated within IORC for a second round of review. (Records can go through as many as four rounds of review before reaching a final disposition.) The Kane/Kendall/Will County record from 2012 was the only one of the seven to gain acceptance in the first round.
Barnacle Goose in Kendall County, 28 Nov 2012.
Photograph by Andrew Aldrich.
Photographic evidence included in the accepted record made clear the bird’s identification as a Barnacle Goose. In comments accompanying their votes, IORC Members cited a variety of factors that supported the bird being a wild vagrant individual. These factors included the dates of occurrence, the documentation including evidence of the individual traveling with a flock and evidence of the species mix of that flock, and the documentation making a compelling case that the goose showed no signs of prior captivity.
There are 23 instances of Barnacle Goose in Illinois that have been cited in the literature, appeared in eBird checklists, or for which evidence potentially allowing review is otherwise available. The seven records recently considered by IORC are among these. IORC previously evaluated two of the other records; questions of origin resulted in neither of these being accepted.