ML37883461

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Tags

Multiple species

Observation details

Originally posted as Goose sp as follows: "A juvenile white goose either Snow or Ross's. I have no real experience distinguishing between these two so I'm dependent on the literature. I was first struck by how closely the bird resembles the drawing of a juvenile Ross's Goose in Sibley 2nd edition. The overall whiteness of the plumage, the dark line thru the eye, the patch of medium grey on the crown, small patches of pale grey on the back. The base of the black bill looks fairly straight & certainly is not markedly concavo-convex. The bird & its bill look small compared to adjacent Canada Geese but size is a hard parameter to judge. The head looks more rounded than wedge-shaped to me but again hard to judge & seems to vary with posture. Because of the rarity & my inexperience in distinguishing juvenile Snow & Ross's Goose I'm hesitant to call it a Ross's Goose pending more research. I have attached some photos. Conditions were gloomy, the bird fairly distant & I was using a hand-held Nikon at 60 X & the photos are not great. I would appreciate any help or advice with this ID! Thanks" See confirmation email from Jay McGowan. Thanks, Jay! The bird spent most of its time in the southern half of Woodman Pond. Visible from the bench on the canal towpath & from the outflow area at the south end of the lake.

Technical information

Model

COOLPIX P610

ISO

125

Focal length

236.5 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire, auto

f-stop

f/6.3

Shutter speed

1/250 sec

Dimensions

600 pixels x 450 pixels

Original file size

353.19 KB