A Rare Arctic Visitor Shows Up In South LA

A rare arctic visitor that’s a long way from home is getting a new lease on life from the Wetlands & Wildlife Care Center in Huntington Beach.

The Tundra Bean Goose is typically found in Alaska, China, and Russia, but one of the small brown birds made it all the way to Magic Johnson Park in the Willowbrook neighborhood of South L.A.

The goose is an unusual sight for Southern California — they’ve only ever been spotted about a dozen times in the lower 48 states. The center said it’s just as rare as seeing the Snowy Owl in Cypress at the beginning of the year.

Why Southern California?

This Tundra Bean Goose was first seen back in March in Antelope Valley. Bird watchers flocked to Piute Ponds, which is a popular stop for many migrating birds, to catch a glimpse of the visitor from up north.

It moved around the area over the next few months, hanging out with Canada Geese at the Lancaster Water Treatment Plant and Apollo Park.

Many bird enthusiasts started reporting that the goose was injured. Its right wing was drooping and it seemed to have a limp, which concerned state and federal wildlife officials.

The goose was still somehow able to make the 60-mile flight to the Willowbrook park. After a couple of hours and a lot of frozen peas, it was safely trapped by the center’s capture team.

It’s unclear how the goose got here exactly. Debbie McGuire, the executive director of the Wetlands & Wildlife Care Center, told LAist that hurricanes, El Niño, and other climate patterns are going to alter bird migration.

How's it doing now?

The goose was shot with a BB pellet and had a badly fractured metacarpal bone in its right wing.

McGuire said they believe the injury happened sometime in the spring while the goose was still in the high desert.

A veterinarian will now need to decide if the BB pellet can be removed, but this bird likely won’t be able to live in the wild again.

“They migrate from Siberia to South Asia, and it just wouldn't be able to do that anymore with the way that its wing is,” said Teal Helms, a lead wildlife technician who helped capture and care for the bird.

Helms said the best scenario is that the arctic avian will spend the rest of its days at a sanctuary near Shreveport, Louisiana. The “Pinola Aviary” already has a few Tundra Bean Geese in their care.

“It seems like a good option for it,” McGuire said. “It would have the water features that it would need, and the proper diet, and geese of its kind to hang out with.”

In the meantime, the bird is doing well all things considered. The center said it’s been very feisty and hissy, in typical goose fashion.