Dec 27 - Greater and Lesser Snow Geese?



A small flock of 6 Snow Geese were present at Seaside Pk on the 27th while I was doing a bit of scouting for the Stratford-Milford CBC. The group consisted of two adults (one blue, one white) and four immatures (all white).

The blue goose was clearly the smallest of the bunch. Reportedly "Blue" Geese are much more common among Lesser Snows than Greaters. I think this blue goose is likely a Lesser Snow Goose, but I haven't really done much research yet on separating the two forms.

It also crossed my mind that this could be a family group, given that two adults and four young birds are present.

Any comments would be welcome.



- Nick

Comments

  1. Yeah-I have a comment-I've never seen a Snow Goose before-except for a flyover that someone once pointed out.I'll have to make a visit over to that part of he state.I like ti better here in the east but all the birds seem to be ovr your way-along with a lot of skilled birders.-Nice photos!

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  2. From what I could gather, Lesser is vastly more common than Greater, though Greater do seem to be limited to the eastern flyway. Given that, I find it interesting that in the small flock observed the smaller bird was the exception.

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  3. What's all this goose nonsense ;) - when are you going to hurry up and find us that Glaucous-winged Gull? Did you see someone questioned that ID on Frontiers. Opinions on gulls - everyone's got one!

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  4. Has anyone noted if the migration route has been altered this year? We saw serval flocks of what I believe were snow geese fly south over our property in NW Ohio.. We have never seen these birds fly over us before in any years past

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