A RARE visitor, hardly ever seen in Wiltshire, turned up on The Crammer pond in Devizes this week.

The Barnacle goose, more a resident of the Arctic tundra than the centre of a busy market town, was seen among a flock of more than 100 Canada geese that has taken to visiting the pond.

But Rob Turner, the county recorder for Wiltshire Ornithological Society, poured cold water on the idea that Devizes could expect an influx of "twitchers" eager to see the visitor.

He said: "It is almost certainly an escaped bird from someone's collection. They are sometimes seen in flocks of Pink-Footed geese that come down from the Arctic but never among Canada geese, which are also an introduced species."

Meanwhile, Devizes Town Council says it will be keeping a close eye on the effect the Canada geese have on The Crammer, where they vastly outnumber the dozen or so resident mute swans and Mallard ducks.

Town council manager Simon Fisher thanked the Gazette for bringing the situation to his notice and said that they would monitor the situation to see whether the presence of so many geese was affecting the condition of the pond or discouraging other wildlife.

A spokesman for Wiltshire Wildlife Trust said that the geese, which are not a native British species but whose population has exploded since the 1950s, do cause problems.

"They can cause fouling in public places and can reach such large numbers as to take space away from native species," he said. "They constitute a problem for farmers as well, feeding on grass grown for livestock.

"But they are not an unattractive bird and people get upset at the idea of a cull. It is illegal to shoot them in season and the main way of reducing their numbers is by treating the eggs at breeding sites."

The Canada Goose Conservation Society says that there are many humane ways to discourage the geese without driving them away altogether. A spokesman said: "The best answer in urban areas where many people want to feed the birds is to encourage them in some areas but not in others.

"This makes it easier to keep parks clean, and keeps everyone happy. Remember that although goose mess may look unsightly, it is not a health hazard. It's simply recycled grass."

The loss of two Great Bustards to fox attack has not unduly concerned the band of conservationists who are trying to reintroduce the species to Salisbury Plain.

One female bird was found dead when volunteers toured the site near Upavon three weeks ago and about ten days ago another corpse, its head chewed off by a fox, was discovered.

This reduces to 18 the number of birds who are now living wild on the Plain but returning to the release site from time to time to feed and make contact with their siblings.

Project manager Dave Waters said: "We always expected this sort of thing to happen and we are surprised there have not been more fatalities. This is the wild, where 78 per cent of Great Bustard chicks die in their first year.

"Our figures are much better than those for similar releases in Germany and Hungary where Bustards already live in the wild. I hope we don't lose any more but it would be nave to suggest that we won't."