[Tweeters] odd goose at the Fill last night

[Constance Sidles]

Hey tweets, see the emails below, but to summarize, there wa a very 
tiny goose at the Fill last night, a miniature version of Greater 
White-fronted. I thought of Lesser White-fronted, so I asked Dennis and 
a few others to try to get a look at it today in better light. I didn't 
want to agitate the Tweets community for no good purpose, but as you 
can see from Dennis's email below, agitation is in order. I don't have 
a camera that can take adequate pictures, but perhaps if we can 
re-locate it today, someone else will be able to record this bird. - 
Connie, Seattle

constancesidles at gmail.com

Begin forwarded message:


> From: Dennis Paulson <dennispaulson at comcast.net>

> Date: February 11, 2008 8:11:30 PM PST

> To: constancesidles at gmail.com

> Subject: Re: please re-send to Dennis Paulson

>

> CONNIE, I SENT THIS AND MY E-MAIL PROGRAM KICKED IN WITH YOUR OLD 

> ADDRESS, SO IT WAS QUICKLY RETURNED. HERE IT IS AGAIN TO YOUR GMAIL 

> ADDRESS.

>

>  Hello, you all.

>

> Obviously this goose should be found again and photographed well, at 

> the very least. No reason why not to put out the word on tweeters that 

> there is an odd small, white-fronted goose-looking thing there that 

> needs to be studied but not disturbed. Lesser White-fronts are 

> relatively rare, but there are still plenty enough of them to be 

> potential vagrants to the American Pacific coast. And of course, 

> they're kept in captivity.....

>

> Greater W-f Geese have white flank stripes, and the amount of white on 

> the head is variable in both species. Greaters are also very variable 

> in size, although odd ones should be larger, as the larger subspecies 

> is the rarer one here.

>

> Sorry I'm going to be out of town tomorrow, but please e-mail me if 

> anyone sees it tomorrow, and I'll try to get over there on Wednesday.

>

> Dennis

>

> On Feb 11, 2008, at 7:56 PM, Michael Hobbs wrote:

>

>>

>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Constance Sidles" 

>> <constancesidles at gmail.com>

>> To: "Michael Hobbs" <birdmarymoor at verizon.net>

>> Sent: Monday, February 11, 2008 6:32 PM

>> Subject: odd goose at the Fill tonight

>>

>>

>>> Dear Michael, just before dark tonight, my husband called me down to 

>>> Shoveler Pond at the Fill to try to identify an odd goose paddling 

>>> around with the Canadas for the night. I think you should try to go 

>>> see it ASAP. It is plumaged like a Greater White-fronted Goose, but 

>>> it is much, much smaller. Did I mention it was smaller? It's 

>>> actually tiny, scarcely larger than a Mallard. Its neck is shorter 

>>> than any GWHG I ever saw. It also has a very prominent white flank 

>>> stripe. It was too dark to check out whether it had a yellow 

>>> eye-ring, and I never saw its legs. Also, I couldn't get a good look 

>>> at its face. It kept swimming away from me. It does have white 

>>> around its face, but I couldn't tell if the white went up higher on 

>>> the forehead than regular GWFG. I rather thought not, but I can't be 

>>> sure. Its bill is small, but not quite as small as I would like for 

>>> it to be a (drum roll) Lesser White-fronted Goose. I checked out all 

>>> the books I have about geese, and they say it is hard to tell GWFG 

>>> and LWFG apart in the field because there is overlap, although if 

>>> you spot one that is nominant, it has a noticeably different gizz. A 

>>> clearly seen yellow eye-ring is an important field mark, as is a 

>>> bright white flank stripe, small pink bill, shorter neck, shorter 

>>> legs. I can summarize by saying a LWFG is to a GWFG as a Cackling 

>>> Goose is to a Canada, more or less. If this were a Canada-plumaged 

>>> bird, I would without hesitation say it was a Cackler. - Connie

>>>

>

> -----

> Dennis Paulson

> 1724 NE 98 St.

> Seattle, WA 98115

> 206-528-1382

> dennispaulson at comcast.net

>

>

>

>

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