Date: Sat, 11 Jan 2003 18:09:34 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: David Mozurkewich Subject: PG Greater White-fronted Goose In-Reply-To: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Is anyone who has tried to put a sub-species name on this pretty fellow willing to say so in public? I have embarrassingly little experience with this species having seen less than a dozen Greater White-fronted Geese in the last decade. My understanding is that the Greenland form is supposed to have an orange (rather than pink) bill and compared to the North American forms should be both darker and more heavily marked below. Is it true that the Greenland form is the expected form in Maryland? This bird's bill is not as bright as its legs but looked orange. It had a dark head and neck but its belly was very pale and crossed by only a couple swaths of black. For what little it's worth, the bill looks decidedly pink in some of my photos. Then again, my impression of color in the field may not match the norm. So, are the light underparts and lack of extensive black due to age (perhaps a second winter bird) and is the bill color enough to call this a Greenland bird or is the bill color within the range of the North American forms and do the underparts rule out a Greenland origin or should I just call this a White-fronted Goose and go home? And if anyone hasn't been out to see it yet, as of Saturday afternoon (January 11) it was still there. At the national colonial farm. But it wasn't with the flock of Canada's to the left of the gravel road. It was to the right of the road in a similarly-sized flock not visible until you are about half way down that road from the visitor's parking lot to the staff's parking. A mid-day trip seems to be a good idea as I saw no geese in this area yesterday just after sunrise. Dave David Mozurkewich Seabrook, PG MD USA mozurk @ bellAtlantic.net ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================