Interesting... I think I'll go hunt it down with a camera, if its still around. I have some very poor, non-diagnostic shots with the iPhone as is - but really they just look like a gray goose. Can't really even discern the bill and leg colors (I remember them both as orange).
-----Original Message-----
From: Jeffery Davis <jwdjwd67...>
To: jovet <jovet...>; mdbirding <mdbirding...>
Sent: Fri, Nov 16, 2012 12:42 pm
Subject: RE: [MDBirding] Graylag Goose question
There is, to my knowledge, only one accepted record for Graylag Goose and that is from 2009 in CT. This is the report from the ARCC Webpage
GRAYLAG GOOSE (Anser anser) One was found on 22 Feb 2009 in a flock of Canada Geese in a corn stubble field on Whirlwind Hill Road in Wallingford, where it wintered (11-03 Greg Hanisek*, Mark Szantyr‡). This constitutes a first state record and the first accepted record for the United States. However, there are several recent records from northeastern Canada, including the first accepted North American record of a bird that landed on an oil rig off Newfoundland in April 2005 (American Birding Association Checklist Committee Record 2008-05). Acceptance in Connecticut involved questions of identification and origin, both of which are complicated by the presence in North America, and more specifically within the general area of this sighting, of domestic Graylag Geese. Detailed photographs of this bird allowed for its identification as a Western Graylag Goose (Anser a. anser), the migratory subspecies nesting commonly from Iceland across northern Europe. Experts consulted by ARCC agreed to this identification and to the fact, based both on structure and other features, that this was a wild form rather than a domestic bird.
regards,
jeff
Downingtown, PA
Checkout our bird photos at the link below:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeffamy/
or for a slightly different viewing experience:
http://www.flickriver.com/photos/jeffamy/
"Birding Like I Have Six Months To Live"
To: <mdbirding...>
Subject: [MDBirding] Graylag Goose question
From: <jovet...>
Date: Fri, 16 Nov 2012 12:28:58 -0500
Hi All,
I'm confused about Graylag Geese and their "countability" on bird lists (like e-bird).
I think that Graylag are often domesticated and thus don't count on a list. Under what criteria is one considered "wild" and/or countable?
I have one in my neighborhood that apparently flew in a few days ago, is not associating with other geese, is on a farm pond - but the farmer has never kept birds, or put geese or ducks on the pond (llama farm) in the almost 20 years I've been here. And the goose is not bold - it disappeared in the grasses the first few times we stopped to view it. (It did challenge a car in the road yesterday, but left when I shooed it off).
So - can anyone educate me about Graylags?
Thanks!
Joanne
Joanne Howl, DVM
<jovet...>
West River, MD
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