11/18/02...Kevin McGowan offers the following commentary on the HYBRID GEESE we've seen in Rhinebeck recently: "On this page is a photo of a purported hybrid White-fronted Goose X Canada Goose, and I have seen comments about others seeing such geese around New York. While these hybrids may indeed occur in our area, far more frequent are Canada Goose X domestic geese hybrids. A trio of geese nearly identical to the bird pictured on the Waterman site have been hanging out at Stewart Park in Ithaca, and they are known to be from a pair of domestic geese in the area (whether the parents both have recessive Canada genes or Mom was fooling around with a local Canada Goose is unknown; I suspect the latter). I don't have pictures of the family up on my web site yet, but you can check out the discussion of these tricky geese at http://birds.cornell.edu/crows/greater.htm. The fact that many domestic geese have the white "front" behind the bill doesn't seem to get enough notice."

A hybrid goose, suspected to be a possible Canada X Greater White-fronted, was found on November 8 in Rhinebeck. The bird (see photo at right) was hanging out with a flock of Canada Geese at a condominium complex. This hybrid goose was last seen on November 9. According to Kevin McGowan (see above), this was most likely a Canada X domestic goose hybrid.

On November 10 another hybrid goose was seen at the same location (see photo below) but the first one was not relocated. This second hybrid had noticeably pink legs and a very different facial pattern from that of the first one. This appears to be a domestic hybrid also.

11/18...Jim Utter reported that a hybrid goose looking similar to the one in the photo at right was at Stony Kill Farm on November 2 .

 

 

Directions to the Rhinebeck site:  Take Route 9 north from the main intersection in Rhinebeck to Montgomery Street (just before the hospital on the left). Take Montgomery Street and make the first left off Montgomery onto Astor Drive. Watch for The Woods, a condominium complex, on the right. Drive into the complex and look for the Canada Geese on or near the pond in front of you when you come to the T in the road. If you don't see it there, drive around and check the other ponds within the complex. There is a small parking lot near the pond south of the T intersection. Look for a brown neck among all the black ones.

 

  Historical Archive Index