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The retention pond in The Home Depot parking lot might be the last place one would expect to discover an ecological rarity, but that's just what University of Florida graduate student DeLene Beeland recently stumbled upon.
In something akin to a backward version of "The Ugly Duckling" fable, a rogue greater white-fronted goose has been living with a bunch of Muscovy ducks in the retention pond off Tower Road, and it is about 2,800 miles from its native nesting area.
" It's an unusual bird here," said Rex Rowan, vice president of the Alachua Audubon Society, who discovered the bird for the first time about three weeks ago. "We've been keeping records in Alachua County for about 100 years, and this is only the 10th one of these to ever show up."
Beeland came upon the goose as part of an independent ecology project comparing birds that live in natural water bodies to the birds who choose to live in retention ponds.
She didn't immediately know what it was.
" When I first saw the goose, I knew it wasn't something typical," she said. "When I was at home, I realized what it was and went back the second day."
Greater white-fronted geese spend much of the year near the Arctic Circle, in the tundras of Canada and Alaska, Rowan said, but when winter comes along, they migrate south to areas in Texas and Louisiana. It's rare that they venture very far east of the Mississippi River.
" It's unusual to find them anywhere in Florida," he said.
Even more unusual is the fact that the goose apparently made it here alone. Geese usually travel in flocks that range anywhere from 15 to thousands, but Rowan said it happens occasionally that a goose will stray from the flock.
" They typically do travel in flocks," he said. "Of the 10 records (of greater white-fronted geese), off the top of my head, I think about half of them have been individual birds."
Beeland said she plans to go back a few times to the retention pond even after her two-week project is finished, because she has taken a special interest in the bird and its survival.
Rowan said he has no idea what the goose's chances of survival are, considering most geese have already started their trek back north by now.
" I'm surprised it stayed as long as it has," he said. "Typically they start north in January or February."
Rowan said the fact that the goose has chosen The Home Depot parking lot to live also doesn't bode well for its survival, considering the pond "is 18 feet deep with Muscovy duck dung," he said.
He said it's possible the bird is too weak to fly north, and he said greater white-fronted geese have stuck around for months in the past.
" There was one back in the '70s that spent over a year on Payne's Prairie," he said. "That was a slightly more goose-friendly environment, but it's not unprecedented for one to spend an entire year here and survive."

By ALICE WALLACE

Photo by: Doug Finger/The Gainesville Sun 

A greater white-fronted goose walks the retention pond in front of The Home Depot on Tower Road on Tuesday morning.