Three Canada Geese were spotted on the driving range at the Bermuda Golf Academy in Southampton last week.

The Canada Geese, which are abundant on the North American continent are rarely seen in Bermuda and are usually single birds , said Andrew Dobson, who is president of the Bermuda Audubon Society.

"The past few months have proved an exception with three birds being seen in December and perhaps one of those birds spending much time on the Mid-Ocean golf course in January," he said. "However the arrival of a further three birds on the golf range in Southampton provided the rare opportunity to find out where at least one of the birds had come from."

One of the recent arrivals was tagged, noticed Mr. Dobson while he was photographing the birds. The tag was a small metal band around its left leg. Using a telescope to further investigate, he was able to read a nine-digit identification number on the tag.

Mr. Dobson submitted the identification number to the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center in the United States and within 24 hours he received details about the unlikely visitor to the Island.

"It had been banded as a young bird, still unable to fly, on July 8, 2009 at St. Paul L'Ermite, Quebec," said Mr. Dobson. "Bird banding is used to track bird migration and movement. That is a direct distance of over 1,000 miles, but the birds are unlikely to have flown in a straight line and will have flown on a journey far in excess of that distance."