Hi all

Last Saturday, I went to Great Oak Pond in Kent County. I didn't report here at MDOsprey because others have already reported the geese there. When I visited, I identified Canadas, Snows, Ross's, and one Brant. I scanned for Cackling but didn't find any. I took pictures of the Ross's and the Brant, and some general shots of the crowd. Interestingly, the Candas were smaller than I normally find. Sibley lists a "lesser" Canada Goose subspecies. I don't know the current thinking on Canada Goose subspecies, but the ones I saw were only slightly larger than the Snow Geese with whom they were swimming.

The unexpected benefit of photography came when I downloaded my photos and looked at one of the general shots of the geese on the pond. Oops. There was a canada-type that looked smaller than the others. Oops. There was another. I cropped the picture (effectively increasing the magnification) and saw that the breasts of these geese were grayer than their larger counterparts. Even my wife, who is a  non-birder, noticed the different, stubbier shape of the bills on these smaller birds. This doesn't often happen to me but I think I picked up a year species after-the-fact from the photos. What a hoot!

Don Burggraf
Baltimore




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