To all-

Yup, I agree that the other white goose must have been some sort of
greylag type - didn't even think about the lack of black primaries (tho'
my wife now says, "No, it certainly didn't have black primaries - didn't
you notice that?"). The bill and legs were certainly "not quite right" -
just goes to show that I've been spending too much time staring at gray
jays (I did my PhD on foraging ecology of gray jays in the Colo. Rockies).

Back to the gulls-
Cheers,
Jim

On Sun, 29 Jan 1995, Eugene Hunn wrote:

> I saw the Ross's Goose finally (on my fourth try) Saturday, Jan. 28, at
> 7:30 AM, dawn, on the nw pond of the Kent Ponds, where it apparently
> spent the night with ca 100 Canada's. I wonder if the second white
> goose, identified as "another Ross's" (but that was retracted by the
> observer on examining the photos) of a Snow Goose could be the white
> gray-lag type goose that confused some of us at the Russell Rd Park. It
> is as large as a snow goose and has a pinkish bill, but has no black on
> the primaries and a small roundish black spot on the side of the head
> just behind the eye. The neck shows the transverse corrugations I
> associate with gray-lags (though maybe many geese have them), and the
> legs seem rather orangish, as I recall. In any case, with no black on
> the primaries it is no snow goose.
>
> Gene Hunn.
>
> On Sat, 28 Jan 1995, James Ha wrote:
>
> > To all-
> >
> > My wife, son, and I found two white geese this morning at 11:30-12:00 at
> > a small park south of 212th along the east side of the river near the golf
> > course (Russell Road Park, mostly softball fields). In each of two nearby
> > groups of about 25 Canadas there was one white goose: one was
> > distinctly chunkier, if not a bit longer, than the Canadas, and I had no
> > problem identifying it as a snow goose, though there was no black on the
> > bill (bill and legs were pink). In the other group of Canadas, mostly
> > resting on the periphery of the foraging Canada group, was a similarly
> > marked white goose distinctly smaller than the Canadas, and
> > unquestionably smaller than the other white goose. It had a rounder
> > head, shorter neck, black line on the bill (which also gave me fits when I
> > referenced the Golden and NGS field guides), and a dark base to the bill
> > (we saw no protuberances). The Ross's?
> >
> > We canvassed the areas around 212th and 68th, north to 178th, and saw no
> > geese of any color, starting at about 11am.
> >
> > Cheers,
> > Jim
> > Psychology/Animal Behavior
> > University of Washington
> >
>