ML646144229

Observation details

I saw the bird sitting on the bank of the river because it moved, (I was looking for Dippers). It was the same color as the rocks. When I looked in binoculars I could see it was a small goose and it was smaller than a mallard, maybe by a couple inches. Its bill was all black. It looked exactly like the pictures of an immature Ross goose. I could see the wing tips were black because it was black where the wings were folded all the way on back, and there were markings of black white lateral lines represented in its wings towards the back of the bird. It was more of a grayish white. The day before I was at Consumers River Preserve and I saw Snow Goose, they are larger, and I have seen many saw of them, as a matter fact I’ve seen hundreds of thousands of them. Perhaps this is Snow Goose but when I looked up the information, the Ross’s Goose is basically the same size as a mallard, whereas the Snow Goose is at least 5 inches longer. I’m talking about bill to tail. So based on the fact that the size being the size of a mallard (actually it was smaller), that’s why I identified it as a Ross‘s goose. The beak was black, but I didn’t see the field mark that distinguishes Ross‘s goose (the beak area) - I am only going by the size. I’ve been a naturalist since I was five years old, but I am a still a rookie at birding. If someone lets me know that Snow Goose could be as big as a mallard, I would gladly change it. I also heard it when it flew down the river and later when it flew back up the river, and it sounded odd to me like a combination of a small dog with a raspy bark mixed almost like with a red tail hawk. That’s the best way for me to describe it. When I played the sounds on Merlin, It sounded more like the Ross goose than it did like a Snow Goose - it was a repeated sound as it flew away. In other words it sounds were in repetition. I was shocked at how small it was and if you know that area, the bear river is not very wide, especially in the area I was in it was maybe 30 or 40 feet wide and it was on the bank and I was at the opposite bank (the shore). I never saw it fly. I heard it when it flew up river, and I had no clue what it was, then later I saw it up the river. It started swimming down river (with the current), then I heard it fly back down river and it made the same sounds. Based on my research (BEFORE I reported it), it appears to me I’ve made a decent assessment based on all the sighting and facts. Again, I knew the distinguishing field mark for Ross‘s Goose is something with the beak and that it looks almost like a baby goose, but when I look up the size difference it was significant, that’s why I chose Ross over Snow. Attached are pictures from the Sibley Bird app. You could see the Ross‘s is lighter and the bill looks darker, and like I mentioned the size difference was significant. I use voice to text so please forgive grammar and repetition.