Snow Geese Fall 2014 (1 Viewer)

[AdamfromCanada]

Last weekend I went out to a buddy's farm where a large flock of geese had been spotted. Here's the photos from the excursion. I have a few questions on these:

- In Photo #1, is that a juvenile blue phase in the foreground? He's strikingly different than the others.

- In Photo #2, the ducks - female ruddys? I'm really not sure on this one.

- Photos #3-8 - Any Ross's Geese? I've blown up a couple potential candidates from Photo #4 (the blow-ups are photos #9-10)

- Photo #5 - again another very dark goose, also a juvenile blue phase?

Thanks!

 

[AdamfromCanada]

Photos 6-10.

In Photo 9, my suspected Ross's is at the back of the middle pack. In #10, a different bird from the same photo (#4) is central in the crop. Again, he looks smaller to me.

Thoughts?

Thanks!

 

[Tiraya]

On image 2, there is a bird standing in the mud just to the right of the centre which could be Ross'. On image 3, near the top left of the flying birds, there are some good candidates but hard to tell because they might just be further away. I could see your image 9 being a Ross', bill stubbiness and size difference seems to be there as do the proportions.

For Ross' id you are looking for a bird without the black area on the beak in the close up shots, and stubbiness of the bill in general (think cackling vs Canada). Distance and angle can make birds look smaller than they are, and none of them look any more than a little bit smaller. Ross' have a much thicker and shorter neck too, but this can't really be judged in flight and needs to be done in standing birds. For instance, some of your flight birds have a thick and short looking neck but they are snow geese.

EDIT: You have some white-fronted geese in picture 3 on the far right side though.

 

[Tideliner]

There are a couple of possibles , for example the flying bird against the rushes though it might as well be the angle of the shot that makes the bill look so small. There is nothing I would put my hand on my heart and say ROSS goose. The ducks in photo 2 are pintail.

 

[AdamfromCanada]

Thanks! I appreciate it! There were actually quite a lot of white-fronted geese there, although dwarfed in numbers by the snow geese of course. Thanks for the tips on recognizing Ross's. That should be helpful moving forward.

 

[jmepler]

There looks to be several Ross's in your first picture as well. Certainly the one circled on the left looks good.

Mike

 

[Tiraya]

There looks to be several Ross's in your first picture as well. Certainly the one circled on the left looks good.

Mike

Yes that one looks good, and possibly the second one too with the short and thick neck. No comment on the third unless we can determine head angle, could just be faced away. It looks quite tall for Ross' but it still could be one.

 

[DarkFireFalcon]

Here's a few references for ID of Snow vs Ross's, and their hybrids (which are not uncommon)

http://birds.cornell.edu/crows/rossgoos.htm
http://biology.eku.edu/kos/goose_id.htm
http://www.surfbirds.com/Features/nikonsnowgeese0210/snowrossgoose.html
http://www.sibleyguides.com/2011/12/identification-of-white-geese/

I agree with the others, there are some definite Ross's candidates in their, but it's hard to be sure from these shots. 6 especially seems to have several smaller birds with shorter bills

 

[Fozzybear]

Beautiful sight Adam, especially pic 9 - thanks for posting them.

 

[chris butterworth]

The ducks in #2 look more like Canvasbacks.