Mark,

I'm skeptical that this could be a juvenile white Ross's, as those birds 
are more aptly described as having dusky feathering where your bird 
shows solid dark gray/blue coloring. Head and bill structure are 
consistent with a typical Ross's, so I think you can also rule out a 
first generation Ross's X Lesser Snow, but perhaps not Lesser somewhere 
up the line. The possibility of a blue and white Ross's cross is 
intriguing, but equally speculative, and probably less likely than a 
few-generations-removed Ross's X Lesser.

While I'm on the topic of white geese, I should mention that yesterday 
my brother Mike, Matt Hafner, Marshall Iliff and I had three white 
Ross's Geese amongst the 25,000-30,000 Snow Geese at Hurlock WWTP. 
Marshall also picked out three Cackling Geese tucked in the huge flock.

Rob Ostrowski
Crofton, MD


On 1/17/2012 11:05 AM, Mark Johnson wrote:
> Yesterday I stopped along Rte 213 just east of Cecilton to check out a huge flock of Snow Geese, some of which were very close to the road. I noticed several blue-phase geese foraging together. There were eight of them-two adults and six juveniles-and they appeared to be staying in a pretty tight group. I was so focused on them that it took me a couple minutes to notice a Ross's Goose in their midst. This bird had a lot of very dark, blotchy gray on the back and shoulders, so I assumed it was a juvenile white-phase, but I've never seen one with such prominent dark markings. I'd be interested to hear comments/opinions about this bird's appearance. Might it be an intermediate between the two color phases, or just a dark juvenile white-phase? I'd also be interested to hear comments on the likelihood of the blue-phase Snow Geese all being related. Does a pairing between two blue-phase geese necessarily result in all blue-phase offspring? Here's a link to the photos http://www.flickr.com/photos/27381338@N03/6714669977/in/photostream/ .
>
> Mark Johnson
> Aberdeen
>
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