It's been decades since people have debated the natural origins of Greater White-fronted Geese in New York State, and a huge body of records has accumulated, supporting the regular occurrence of Greenland-breeding flavirostris on Long Island, and of tundra-breeding North American birds upstate. Still, it's worth keeping an open mind.
To me, the Elda Lake bird looks like a typical flavirostris (decidedly orange bill, dark plumage, very narrow white tail band, etc.), but my photos seem to show that it is missing its left hallux: https://flic.kr/p/R1SzcA Clipping a hind toe is a common practice among keepers of captive waterfowl, but losses of digits also occur naturally. To me it seems unlikely that this is an escaped captive, but perhaps we need to evaluate the various relevant probabilities--how many people keep Greenland White-fronts here, etc. Shai Mitra Bay Shore ________________________________________ From: bounce-121132341-3714...@list.cornell.edu [bounce-121132341-3714...@list.cornell.edu] on behalf of Robert A. Proniewych [baobab...@gmail.com] Sent: Monday, January 9, 2017 7:55 AM To: NYSbirds-L@cornell.edu Subject: [nysbirds-l] Greater White Fronted Goose On Elda lake in the town of N. Babylon. The lake is on Phelps lane. -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME.htm http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES.htm http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) http://birding.aba.org/maillist/NY01 Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
