next message in archive
no next message in thread
previous message in archive
Index of Subjects
Maybe it's time for an update on the gray goose situation in the Windsor/Falmouth area. I started all this and I should see it through. A number of us watched a gray goose in the Canada flock that accumulated during the afternoon in the College Road-Hwy 14 area yesterday (Monday afternoon, Oct. 24). I was there, as was Dave Currie, although we missed each other. In most respects, it had the marks of a Pink-footed Goose - smallish dark-tipped bill with a pinkish central portion, grayish scapulars and coverts, giving a somewhat silvery appearance when spread, and pinkish legs (some saw them as orange, and I could see orange from the rear and a dullish pink from the side). Size comparison showed that it was as large as most of the Canadas. As far as I know, no one photographed the bird yesterday. Dave Currie and I agree that this was the bird that we saw on Saturday, although from much farther away. It also looks like the bird in a few digiscoped images of rather poor quality that we got on Saturday. If so, Saturday's bird was a Pink-foot, although with some problematic features - the overall size of the the bird, the size of the bill (small, but not really small, giving a sloping profile), lack of really striking silvery-gray scapulars and coverts, and indeterminate leg colour that can appear orange. An interesting question is whether or not Saturday's and yesterday's bird was the same one as the indisputable Pink-footed Goose photographed by Tuma on Sunday near Falmouth. After comparing images from Saturday and Sunday, I think it probably was - but I am puzzled by the difference in the amount of silvery gray shown in his photos and ours. I think too that I can see a difference in the amount of black relative to pinkish on the right side of the bill. But it's worth noting that the Falmouth bird looks strikingly different from frame to frame, depending on angle and lighting conditions (quite warm light on Sunday, much colder and flatter on Saturday and yesterday). I think that this will boil down to one rather large Pink-footed Goose. If two gray geese show up together, the whole situation can be rethunk.
next message in archive
no next message in thread
previous message in archive
Index of Subjects