Date: Thu, 5 Feb 2004 22:09:51 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Sherry Peruzzi Subject: Hybrid (?) goose at Lake Elkhorn (Ho Co) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Ken and I found a very strange goose at Lake Elkhorn in Columbia and wondered what it is. We thought it might be a hybrid of Canada x Snow Goose, Domestic Goose x Snow Goose, or ??. There are photos of it here: http://home.comcast.net/~bookworms/wsb/html/view.cgi-photos.html-.html The bill is pink with a bit of black at the tip. The legs and feet are bright orange (the same color as those of the Mallards) rather than pink. The left side of the body is almost all white; the right side has a large patch of brownish-gray with barring. The wingtips are black and on both sides there is a black area on the flank just above the legs. The neck and head look like a leucistic CAGO's neck and head -- mostly black with white patches, an expanded chin strap and large white spot on top of the head. There are several all-white domestic geese resident at Lake Elkhorn, but they invariably hang out together apart from the Canadas. This odd bird ignored the domestic geese -- we saw it in the lower pond with a flock of Canadas when we started our walk around the lake, and when we came back around to the dock it was there foraging at the swan feeder with the Canadas. Does anyone have an idea of what it could be? Sherry ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================