Hi All,

A friend's cat caught a woodcock down on Fish Hatchery Road this morning 
and we went to see if we might be able to release it. Although we may be 
aware that woodcock might be out there in the woods during winter, their 
camouflage and shy nocturnal habits make them a mystery. It was 
fascinating to be able to look at one in the hand. The bird had some 
wing trauma, probably a strain (it had some decent lift when released), 
and a puncture at the wrist of the sprained wing, but we hope it will be 
able to recover in its small 'wormful' swamp. We released it, and came home.

On the way home we checked out the goose flocks on Handy Point Road and 
Great Oak Landing Road (Great Oak Pond is frozen solid). There were two 
unusual birds in the combined total of 2000 Canada Geese and 40 Snow 
Geese in the area. One was a GreylagXCanada hybrid on Handy Point Rd., 
the second was a small Cackling-Goose-sized goose near the Debnam farm's 
grain elevator on Great Oak Landing Rd. The latter bird was only 2/3 the 
size of the Atlantic Canada Geese in its flock, but its characteristics 
violated four of my five principle field marks for identifying 
Richardson's Cackling Goose. The bird's bill and head shape was wrong: 
it had a short right-triangle bill with a straight culmen, and the bill 
was not as proportionally short as a Richardson's Cackler's,  also the 
head did not look round enough, it was more elongated like a normal 
Canada. The neck was not short and thickened as in Richardson's, it was 
slender and proportionally long. The body color was more medium brown 
with a dark mantle and coverts and darker medium brown barring on the 
flanks, with a contrasting pale breast, unlike the usually more pale 
gray and monotone Richardson's. The goose in question also had a short 
primary projection, not reaching the tip of the tail, almost all 
Richardson's Cacklers I have seen have had a fairly long primary 
projection with the wingtip extending beyond the tail tip. The bird was 
tiny, had a different bill-shape from both Richardson's Cackler and 
Canada Goose, and had very short legs (proportionally much shorter than 
its neighbors), so it was not a "runt" Atlantic Canada Goose.

We're not sure what we saw. Was it a Taverner's Cackling Goose? The 
identification literature I have implies Taverner's is essentially a 
larger version of Richardson's, unlike this bird. Or was it a very 
small-bodied Lesser Canada Goose (parvipes)? What few references I have 
on this form are not helpful because they imply parvipes should usually 
be larger than Richardson's Cackling Goose and our bird appeared to be 
on the small side for a Cackling. Perhaps this bird is one of those 
infamous suggested intergrades between Canada and Cackling Goose. At 
present I am leaning toward Lesser Canada Goose, based on some internet 
research.

Good birding,

Walter Ellison & Nancy Martin

23460 Clarissa Rd
Chestertown, MD 21620

phone: 410-778-9568

e-mail: rossgull(AT)baybroadband.net

Observing Nature is like unwrapping a big pile of presents every time 
you take a walk.