Date: Tue, 23 Dec 2003 21:54:20 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Adam Smith Subject: (Mostly albino?) Aberrant Plumaged CAGO at Blackwater NWR MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Today while visiting Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge, myself and = Dave Kidwell saw a very interesting Canada Goose (CAGO). The bird was = in amongst a rather large flock of other CAGO's in a farmed field at the = intersection of Key Wallace Drive and Rt. 335. Turn left onto Key = Wallace Drive from Rt. 335 and the field is immediately on your right. = The bird was in the flock within the first 50 yards from the = intersection. The following is a description of the bird: From the base of the neck, where the normal brownish plumage starts, all = the way back to the tip of the tail, the bird was entirely white, with a = grayish cast over the white plumage. I.e. a wash effect over the = plumage, sort of like a whitewash, only it was a light gray. The neck = of the bird up to the bill instead of the normal black, it was dark gray = with the same light gray wash effect over the entire neck and head = region. The white chin strap was still clearly visible, through the = gray wash. =20 I am afraid we do not recall the color of the bill(I am leaning towards = blackish) and we never saw the feet due to the large number of geese = between us and the bird that maintained our interests. We did not have a camera with us, it figures. We saw the bird shortly = before dusk, but if anyone lives nearby and heads to this spot, as long = as the birds have not left overnight, the bird should be there in the = morning. If you do go, try to get a picture of it. I have never seen a = color variation like this in a bird. On a side note, there was a normal CAGO in the same flock with a neck = band, but it never turned toward us so we could read the numbers. It = was a black band. Adam Smith Arbutus, Baltimore Co.=20 Maryland cyanbluecobalt@msn.com =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D =========================================================================