ML132906821
Contributor
Date
Location
- Age
- Not specified
- Sex
- Not specified
Observation details
After relocating what was presumably the continuing bird that was first found by Chet McGaugh on 20 April, Tony Metcalf called Howard, who called me about this bird. Howard was already looking at the bird when I arrived, so I needed only walk out and check it out as it foraged along the shore in northeastern corner of Pond W9-10. This bird permitted a moderately close approach before it casually swam a short distance over to the far shore of the lake in association with a small flock of coots. This was a small, stocky goose that appeared maybe half-and-again the size of the coots with which it was associated, but it was somewhat different in shape in that it had a wedge-shaped bill of moderate size, a blocky head, a short neck, and a plump body with wings that reached nearly to the tip of the conspicuously short tail. I thought the bill was about twice as long as it was deep at the base, that it had a straight culmen and a blunt tip, and that it would have extended backward on the face to about the rear edge of the auriculars. The head had an odd shape in which a sloping forehead met a somewhat flattened crowned at an angular junction, yet the junction of the crown and nape was more rounded. I thought head was of unremarkable size, but the neck was short and stocky. I saw this bird exclusively on the water, so it was hard to discern the subtle shape of a body that appeared to be plump and seemingly full-chested. I was unable to determine the primary projection, yet I thought the wingtips reached nearly to the tip of the tail, which was conspicuously short and apparently either squared-off or weakly rounded. I never did see the feet and the only part of the legs that I saw was where they met the body. This bird was generally dark, yet I noted some contrast between the flat-black of the head, neck, and breast, and the sooty brown that characterized the back and closed wings. Clearly apparent was a white collar that extended from the center across the sides of the upper neck just below the head. Close inspection further revealed that the white band had a narrow, black bend internally and that it did not connect across the back of the neck. The breast appeared to be entirely black and I thought this same color extended backward across the sides to the foreflanks, but the flanks were for the most part whitish with broad and somewhat diffuse bars of sooty-brown that ran perpendicular to the waterline. Both the undertail coverts and the uppertail coverts were snow-white, but the short tail was dark. The bill was entirely black, the eyes were dark, and what little I saw of the uppermost part of the legs was also black.
Technical information
- Model
- Canon EOS 7D
- Lens
- EF400mm f/5.6L USM
- ISO
- 500
- Focal length
- 400 mm
- Flash
- Flash did not fire, auto
- f-stop
- f/8.0
- Shutter speed
- 1/1600 sec
- Dimensions
- 1592 pixels x 1183 pixels
- Original file size
- 1.66 MB