ML80710351

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Media notes

size comparison of one mystery goose and Ross's Goose

Observation details

we felt these were within the range of taverneri Cackling Goose or parvipes Lesser Canada Goose. Expert opinion will be solicited. They are about the size (heft) of an adult Snow Goose (and decidedly larger than Ross's), and somewhat larger than the pack of 5 Aleutian Geese, but dramatically smaller than large moffitti-like resident Canada Geese. Two of the six had white neck collars but four did not. The 5 Aleutian and 6 mystery geese were foraging near each other for a time but acted as if they were in separate (family?) flocks, and eventually moved far away from each other in tight packs. Wing panels varied from very plain (like Taverner's?) to one with a more Aleutian-like wing panel. Taverner's Cackling has not been documented in Monterey County, and we think parvipes Lesser CAGO has been documented, but both seem about equally likely as scarce migrants? LATER: After photos were sent to 4 experts, Bruce Deuel and Steve Mlodinow responded and identified this set as "Lesser" Canada Goose B. c. parvipes, and probably of the darker population than breeds around Anchorage, Alaska [with the caveat that "parvipes" is probably not a monophylectic taxa]. The remaining 2 experts appear to concur. The "race" parvipes is now considered part of eBird's "canadensis" Group. These are wild migrant geese, unlike our introduced "moffitti-like" residents One further wrinkle -- Mlodinow felt that one of the six (shown front right in 1st phto and to the left in the 2d photo above) was a bit ambiguous and 'might' be taverneri, but the six were all the same size and appeared to move as a flock. In retrospect, they appear to be the same 6 seen at Laguna Grande recently. Thus, for now, I treat all six as "parvipes" Lesser Canada Geese.

Technical information

Model

Canon EOS 7D Mark II

ISO

800

Focal length

300 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire, auto

f-stop

f/8.0

Shutter speed

1/5000 sec

Dimensions

1262 pixels x 976 pixels

Original file size

523.24 KB