--- On Mon, 1/25/10, Paul Dubuc <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>...I assume these are known to be domesticated escapes?

More accurately, you can know that we're assuming these are domesticated escapes.

Graylag geese are very common in captivity in the US and many are encountered as escapes. To my knowledge there is only one accepted recorded of a wild graylag in the ABA area. That was from an oil-drilling ship off the coast of Newfoundland.

Last winter a wild-type graylag in Connecticut caused quite a stir. I believe it was in the company of banded Canada geese from Greenland. This record may have been recently accepted, but the Connecticut checklist dated Nov. 2009 that I found online doesn't include it.

All the Ohio graylags that I've seen have been the big, dumpy domestic variety, and they're often in the company of other "barnyard" geese. It would be wonderful to find a wild graylag here, but providing the documentation that the bird record committee would require to accept it would be a challenge.

Happy birding,
Paul

Paul Gardner
Columbus

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