Date: Fri, 17 Nov 2000 02:09:32 EST Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Marshall Iliff Subject: Greater White-fronted Goose in Queen Anne's County - Wednesday Comments: cc: voice@capaccess.org MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit MDOsprey, The only notable find in an afternoon of Eastern Shore birding on Wednesday 15 Nov 2000 was an adult _flavirostris_ GREATER WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE at Rte. 309 pond, Queen Anne's County (see directions below). Matt Hafner picked the bird with binoculars as it was huddled among 700+ Canada Geese on the pond 1/8 mi away - quite impressive considering that I had toruble finding it in binoculars even when I knew where it was! Also on the pond were two _hutchinsii_ Canada Geese ("Richardson's Goose") and a wide variety of ducks including most dabbler species. This region of Queen Anne's County has had a wandering White-front (or several) annually since 1997 and before. In the fall of 1997 I saw one bird at the ponds at Rte. 213 & 301 followed by two feeding on John Brown Rd. Turf Farm as viewed from Rte. 301. Last winter (I think) Bob Ringler saw one in the area with a large Snow Goose flock. All three sightings of mine were of orange-billed birds as was the one on Wednesday - quite a stark contrast with the Howard White-front that we saw 2 hours later. The _hutchinsii_ are standard fare for Upper Eastern Shore goose flocks. For those unfanilar with this type, look for a Canada Goose 1/2-2/3 the size of the others, with a shorter neck, stubbier bill, PALER BREAST, and PALER BACK with broader white edging. Sometimes there is a partial neck ring under the black neck. The _minima_ subspecies has not appeared in Maryland but should be obvious if it does so - it is Mallard sized, VERY small billed, and has a DARK breast. Rte. 309 pond is a favorite of mine. Take Rte. 301 north from the 50/301 split to a right on Rte. 213. Go only about a mile south before going left on Rte. 309. After about 1.5 mi and just after a bend to the right, look for the pond down the hill to your left where there is a small chain over an old road (used to be a house here). Also on Wednesday at Sandy Point S.P. were 8 Snow Buntings, 1 Great Cormorant, and 1 Oldsquaw, along with THOUSANDS of gulls (many Bonaparte's and Laughing) feeding 2-3 mi offshore. Best, Marshall Iliff miliff@aol.com Ocean City, MD ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================