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All: There have been a couple of reports of a purported Snow X Canada Goose hybrid at the Bellisle Marsh. On 26 March, Kevin Lantz forwarded good photos of this goose to me and Eric Mills. We both concluded that is was largely or entirely a derivative of a domestic strain of Graylag Goose, possibly but not certainly with a touch of Canada Goose. Here's what I wrote to Kevin "The marked wavy lines on the long neck mark it as an Anser Goose - at least partly. And the heavy pink bill and very long neck mark it as some kind of extraction of Greylag Goose. Domesticated versions of these can be white, of course, and often have the deep bellies shown by this one. There have been reports a number of free-flying individuals of these in the Valley and elsewhere in recent years. It may be wild and associating with our resident Canadas, and maybe even a hybrid (or more likely backcross) with a Canada. The pattern of some of the "normal" feathering - e.g. pale underwing coverts vs largely black flight feathers (with some white ones from domestic selection or partial amelanism - oops, somewhat pigmentally challenged) - seems to conform to Graylag, but the darker rump does not, and maybe that's a touch of Canada. That's about all that might be said, I guess." Cheers, Ian Ian McLaren
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