Date: Mon, 11 Mar 2002 19:20:16 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Phil Davis Subject: Re: One last thing re: Greater WF Goose/Greylag at Lake Artemesia 3-10-02 In-Reply-To: <168.a120054.29be5d17@aol.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed Hi Kerry - At 02:18 PM 03/11/2002 -0500, you wrote: >Okay, I see now I was wrong. I am surprised, however, that Sibley's guide >isn't more thorough regarding these two geese. The other field marks I >saw on the goose were an eye ring (same color as the bill), and there was >a faint white tip on the bill. None of the guides I scanned through noted >this marks. However, today, I looked in Peterson's Eastern Birds and he >noted these two marks. I'm surprized Sibley didn't note these marks, it >would've made identification easier. This is an ID situation where British/European field guides are actually more helpful. >Second item. Peterson notes the Greylag as an accidental Eurasion >species, noting it can come over on a boat. How does a birder treat a >sighting like this? Here's a not very "user friendly" technical answer ... most all birding organizations in North American rely of the American Ornithologists' Union (AOU) Check-List as their source of taxonomy (i.e., which species are "legitimate" for North America, in which order they are to be listed, etc). The AOU has the Graylag (spelled with an "a" by the AOU) Goose in it's Appendix rather than its "main list." The Appendix is for species reported from the AOU Check-List area "with insufficient evidence for placement on the main list". In the Graylag Goose species account (in the Appendix) the AOU states that "sight records, mostly in the eastern U.S., are assumed to be escapes from captivity". In other words, no one has been able to convince the AOU Check-List committee that a "wild" Graylag has occurred in North America. IF a "real" Graylag (or even a Greylag) were to land in the Eastern US, if would very difficult to prove that it was not an escapee ... unless it has a European band! Proving a negative is really a challenge. This is exactly the same problem that occurs with Barnacle Geese, Baikal Teal, and many other species of waterfowl. >I read in one of the earlier posts something about a "barnyard goose." Is >that what this is considered - an escapee? I consider them to be "poultry" ... these all-white ducks and geese have been hybridized and bred for domestic ornamentation. Most of the white ducks are considered to have been derived from Muscovy stock and most of the white geese from Greylag stock. Hope this helps ... Phil ================================== Phil Davis Davidsonville, Maryland USA mailto:PDavis@ix.netcom.com ================================== ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================