WE all do a bit of back-garden bird spotting from our kitchen window or when out mowing the lawn. A blue tit here, a magpie there – maybe even a bigger bird, or an owl. But on Shaftesbury couple were recently shocked to see what is believed to be the world’s rarest goose enjoying their garden.

The bird, believed to be a nene – pronounced ‘nay nay’ – was seen by the couple this week and has been returning regularly in recent days.

“It’s markings were very distinctive,” they said. “Having looked it up, we discovered it was a nene goose, the rarest goose in the world.”

Experts, contacted by your Blackmore Vale, said while they could not confirm the species, the bird ‘certainly looks like a nene’.

Originally native to Hawaii, the nene is a friendly and inquisitive bird and was believed to number around 25,000 before the arrival of Europeans in 1778. The bird – also known as the Hawaiian goose – was later placed on the at-risk register as numbers dwindled, reaching just 30 by 1952. Since then, an effort to revive the species – including by the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust charity – has seen numbers grow.

The charity’s founder, Sir Peter Scott, brought a pair back to Slimbridge, in Gloucestershire. Then, in 1962, 35 birds from Slimbridge were taken to Hawaii and released back into the wild. Now, more than 50 years later, numbers have risen to more than 2,000, though the bird is still listed as a ‘vulnerable’ species.

Quite how it ended up in a Dorset garden is a mystery – and the WWT said it was unlikely to be from Slimbridge.

Experts say it is not a ‘wild’ bird, so would most likely have come from a collection. But for now, one of the birds seems happy in this particular garden.

“We are not sure where this one has come from; it has not been ringed,” the couple added. “(But) it seems content in our garden at the moment – and we love seeing it.”