I'm posting a snippet of a conversation I found quite interesting from the ID_FRONTIERS list serve regarding a Richardson's Cackling Goose in New York's Central Park. The email is from Peter Pyle, but he is quoting Shaibal Mitra. (the Central Park bird was considered a possible B.h. parvipes "Lesser" Canada Goose, mainly due to its bill size, but is now considered a Richardson's Cackling Goose) "I think people's idea of what a 'standard-issue' Richardson's Goose looks like has been skewed by its perceived rarity, so that the smallest, most extreme individuals have been reported/ identified disproportionately in our region. On LI, we have often found obvious (= extreme) Richardson's Geese in the company of somewhat larger but otherwise essentially identical individuals. Data from the breeding grounds show that male Richardson's Geese, while smaller than Canada Geese, are by no means always tiny. I have argued that the conservative approach to larger-than-expected birds showing the characters of this taxon in our region is Richardson's until proven otherwise. That is, the burden of proof has shifted to those who suggest that parvipes Lesser Canada Geese occur at all regularly in our region." ... Richardson's Geese have long wings in proportion to their body size. At rest, the peak of the back rises close to the front end of the body (often in a distinct little hump), then drops back in a long straight line, or even a slightly concave line, through the relatively long (usually pale) tertials. Furthermore, the tertials account for a larger proportion of the length of the dorsal contour. In contrast, in Canada Goose, the dorsal contour is better described as a hemispheric dome, peaking farther back, at the middle of the body, and appearing evenly rounded." This little tidbit may be of great help with some of the smaller white-cheeked geese we get in Ohio, and it makes me wonder how many larger-than-expected Cackling Geese go unidentified each year. Good birding, Andy Sewell Columbus, Ohio ______________________________________________________________________ Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society. Please consider joining our Society, at www.ohiobirds.org/site/membership.php. Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list. You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at: listserv.miamioh.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]