Re: [Maine-birds] Goose in Limestone

Dear Nancy,

Your Limestone goose looks like a fresh juvenile Snow Goose. The blackish bill and legs are typical of birds that age, as are the dark centers to the big feathers (tertials) lying over the black primaries. Nothing looks off to suggest a hybrid that I can see. Ross's Geese of the same age are much whiter overall and have only a little bit of dusky in the tertials. Ross's Goose also has a small bill (short triangle not long triangle) with the feathering at the base of the bill more or less straight up and down. Your goose shows a neat convex curve of white feather at the base of the bill, forming a point back toward the eye at the top bill base. Ross's would also show a much rounder "cuter" head as well as less bulging gape along the bill.

About photos for Maine Birds list/group:
Chuck Homler set up a group pool to share photos meant for this group on Flickr:
https://www.flickr.com/groups/mainebirdlist/
Instructions there on how to do it. One may also share any photo on another photo-sharing web site (lots out there) and send the link in the message.

Apart from the added bulk of attaching an image to your messages, the real reason to put your photos on a sharing web site is so that everyone can see them and they can be cited and permanently referred to by others (as much as that is possible). A lot of folks read this list on servers that strip out the photos (both Sialia Birding List Digests -- http://digest.sialia.com/?rm=index;region=6-- and the ABA birding news page -- http://birding.aba.org -- do this). So if you want to be sure everyone can find your photos and match them up to your message, it is important to store them somewhere like Flickr or other photo storage web site. (Facebook is not a good choice because not everyone can see photos posted there without special settings and, sometimes, Facebook account, making it inconvenient or impenetrable despite its popularity.) The Google groups host servers for Maine Birds does retain the images and open access, but one would have to send a second message to link to the previous. It's easier on all potential readers to simply give a link. Thanks.

Louis Bevier
Fairfield

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