Hi Everyone,

The other day (can't remember if it was yesterday or the day before) Mike Walsh found a nice Snow Goose flock on Log Cabin Rd in Wicomico County; Mike found 2 ROSS'S GEESE in the flock.  So on my way to work this morning--isn't it cool how many places are on the way to work when you're a birder?--I went to see if I could relocate the flock.  On Log Cabin Rd between Hickory Mill Rd and Naylor Mill Rd (3 Feb 2011) were about 1100 Snow Geese and 4000 Canada Geese.  The flocks were right next to the road, providing very easy viewing from the warmth of the car, and I was able to pick out both ROSS'S GEESE within a couple minutes using only binoculars.  When I began scanning the Canadas soon after, I ran across a couple pairs of orange legs attached to immature GREATER WHITE-FRONTED GEESE--my first of this species for Wicomico--yippee!  These geese had fully orange legs and bills but had only a small amount of white feathering at the base of the bill; in fact one of them appeared to lack the white feathering altogether.  If memory serves, I haven't seen immature Greater White-fronted Geese in MD before, so the limited white surprised me at first.  Cool birds!

When I got out of the car, the Canada Goose flock began walking away from the road, but the Snow Geese stayed put for a while.  So...  I got pretty nice digiscopes of the adult Ross's Goose and only id-able shots of the Greater White-fronted Geese.

Thank you, Mike!  Have fun,

Ron Gutberlet
Salisbury, MD