Wednesday, November 28, 2018

Mercer Corporate Park 11/28--A Very Odd Goose

You Tell Me!
Mike and I stopped by Mercer Corporate Park to see if there were any oddities about and we indeed did find one odd goose. At first we thought it was the Barnacle Goose from last week, but the all white head put the kibosh on that idea. Then we thought Snow Goose, blue morph, but the bill plus its large size made that idea seem wrong. After that, we didn't know what we had, speculating on various plumage aberrations and then, after a run to Wawa to get coffee and warm up a bit, since the goose was originally in this position:
This is called the "no help" pose
 we started trying to figure out what kind of hybrid it might be once we saw it fully when we returned. Another birder told us that there had been a couple of Barnacle Goose hybrids in the area recently, but, once I looked at it more closely on my computer screen I could see some pink in the bill and called it a Snow Goose x Canada Goose, based on the bill and size. But I really don't know. Any ideas will be appreciated.

3 comments:

  1. Funny you would go to Wawa to warm up. :-) According to the Wawa corporate site the name "Wawa" is derived from the Ojibwe word for Canada Goose... :-)

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  2. Looks like this guy found at Veteran's Park a few years ago. I ID'd it as a Snow x Canada Goose. https://wildnj.smugmug.com/Birds/Waterbirds/Geese/Apparent-hybrid-Geese/i-NgpDG5Q/A

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  3. I was seeing that pink in the bill and the rounded head and orangey legs as emperor goos x canada goose. Like you z just an idea. Karenne

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