Bruce Glick was kind enough to send a good photo of the Ross's goose over in Holmes Co., and it reminded me of a discussion at the meeting of the Ohio Bird Records Committee last week. A perennial topic at these meetings is "when are we going to take Ross's goose off the Review List?" In other words, when is the Committee going to stop insisting on acceptable documentation to add a sighting of this species to the official record? After all, there were a minimum of eight of these little geese here just over the winter; I saw six of them, all in the same spot. They just aren't that rare any more. Well, after discussion, Ross's goose remains on the Review List, and here's why. First, some not-so-ancient history. If you look at the first edition of Bruce Peterjohn's "The Birds of Ohio" (1989) you'll see there was at the time only *one* Ross's goose record for Ohio, a bird found at Ottawa NWR on 18 March 1982. Peterjohn acknowledged growing populations of these little geese, but stated "they will probably remain accidental visitors." Well, the Holmes Co bird is at least the ninth so far just this year. Peterjohn attributed Ohio's first record to burgeoning geese populations in the Arctic. These numbers have continued to grow, to the point that some wildlife managers have foreseen the destruction of vast tracts of the tundra by foraging geese, and called for action. Well, managers will always want to manage, but no doubt goose populations, especially 'light' geese, are up, and this is behind the new status of Ross's goose in Ohio. With larger populations have come increasing interactions between (lesser) snow geese and Ross's geese, including hybridization. These hybrids were first described in a 1971 article in the Auk (Trauger et al.), and Birding magazine ran a piece on them in Feb 1993 (Roberson), the latter including a photo of an Ohio bird thought to be a hybrid. It was presented as an esoteric problem that a few birders might occasionally encounter, but it's now bigger than we thought. I've seen one hybrid Ross's X snow goose, and photos of several more, in the past couple of years here in Ohio. There are some fairly predictable field marks, but many good birders are not yet familiar with them. Kevin McGowan offers a useful tutorial on the topic at http://www.birds.cornell.edu/crows/rossgoos.htm ; be aware he discusses only two likely hybrid individuals, and that other intermediate characteristics are possible. So, while Ross's geese were once extremely rare here, the committee quite reasonably felt they should still be documented, since not everyone is familiar with hybrid forms, and understandable wishful thinking might influence undocumented reports. Today a lot more birders are comfortable telling Ross's from lesser snow goose, but now there are subtler distinctions that must be made. These hybrids are apparently fertile, and that means back-crosses will be increasingly likely. So if you learn how to ID hybrids that are half Ross's, do you have to see two before you can count Ross's goose on your Ohio list? Well, it's your list... Bill Whan Columbus ______________________________________________________________________ Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society. Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list. Additional discussions can be found in our forums, at www.ohiobirds.org/forum/. You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]