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Paper short abstract:

Bird vagrants are individuals that end up in the migratory flock of another species. This paper follows a red-breasted goose vagrant to the small Norwegian island of Herøy, whose appearance amongst a flock of barnacle geese troubles normative categories such as species, habitat, and migration.

Paper long abstract:

At some point during the barnacle goose’s 2023 springtime migration to their breeding grounds in Svalbvard, they picked up what is known as a vagrant amongst ornithologists. On the island of Herøy in Norway, locals began reporting sightings of a red-breasted goose amongst the flock that were stopping to feed for several weeks. Breeding in Arctic Siberia and wintering in Azerbaijan, the red-breasted goose was a long way off course, and his colourful markings amongst the barnies’ sea of black and white meant he stood out. Herøy itself has long been a site of tension between locals and geese, with the agricultural community employing scaring tactics – including the school brass band – to drive the barnies from their crops. Yet the red-breasted goose became a cause for celebration, with locals expressing delight at sightings, and many heading out with binoculars for the very first time.

Leg ringing remains the most common method for tracking bird migrations. Goose counts take place in Herøy every summer by conservation organisations seeking to balance the needs of the goose with the needs of the farmers, and reading rings is a key aspect of checking the birds are in the right place. The red-breasted vagrant was distinctly out of place, yet quickly became a local celebrity. In this talk, I will interrogate how tracking technologies such as leg ringing mediate a more-than-human sense of place, and how normative categories such as species, habitat, and migration can be troubled by a single, red-breasted goose.