Tag Archives | Ross’s Goose

Waterfowl Identification

By Larry Jordan on January 10, 2023 in

Have you ever had trouble identifying a duck flying overhead at your favorite lake or river? Can you ID flocks of birds as you scan an open waterway at Turtle Bay or the Sacramento Wildlife Refuge? If you’d like to learn more about identification of our local waterfowl you won’t want to miss this presentation.
Welcome Mike Carion, a retired Chief of Law Enforcement for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and a former Wintu Audubon board member. He got his degree in wildlife management from Humboldt State and spent thirty-two years as a game warden of various ranks, training all of the wardens in many areas including waterfowl enforcement. He retired in 2014 then assisted Hawaii Department of Wildlife in the development of a training academy for wardens and began working for Ducks Unlimited until July of 2020 when he officially retired again and moved to Hawaii with his wife Nicole and started an Audubon group there. Mike’s presentation will cover how to identify the species of ducks and geese most likely to be found in Shasta County and surrounding areas. He will discuss helpful identifying characteristics of these waterfowl to narrow down the possibilities we encounter in the field.
Wintu Audubon Society is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: Waterfowl Identification
Time: Jan 11, 2023 07:00 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/88149164589

Meeting ID: 881 4916 4589
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Wintu Audubon Outing to Meiss Lake

By Larry Jordan on August 27, 2017 in

Meiss Lake is part of the Butte Valley Wildlife Area in Siskiyou County. The habitat includes wetlands, croplands, grasslands and woodlands and birders may see Ross’s Goose and Tundra Swan, a variety of dabbling ducks, shorebirds, hawks, and owls. Meet trip leader Larry Jordan 949-5266 at the Kutras parking lot at 7 am for carpooling. Bring a lunch.

Gray Lodge State Wildlife Area

By Larry Jordan on January 22, 2014 in

Gray Lodge State Wildlife Area is west of Gridley about 100 miles south of Redding so this will be an all day trip. We should see Snow Geese, Ross’s Geese, possible Sandhill Cranes, Eurasian Wigeon among many other species of waterfowl—all this with a backdrop of the beautiful Sutter Buttes. Bring your camera! There is a $4.32 per person entrance fee. If you have a California hunting or fishing license there is no charge. We will meet at the Redding Convention Center to carpool so bring a few dollars for gas also. Your trip leader will be George Horn. Phone number 530-524-7484.

Ross’s Geese at Sacramento National Wildife Refuge

By Larry Jordan on December 10, 2013 in National Wildlife Refuges

Every autumn, tens of thousands of Snow Geese arrive in California’s Sacramento Valley following their long journey from the Canadian Arctic (click on photos for full sized images).

Waterfowl numbers at the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge Complex may exceed two million by December, after the wetland areas of the Klamath Basin and other areas to the north become frozen. Snow and Ross’s Geese winter there in the tens of thousands.

Currently, about 95 percent of all Ross’s Geese nest in the Queen Maud Gulf Migratory Bird Sanctuary in the central Canadian Arctic. The main wintering area for Ross’s Goose (Chen rossii) is presently in the Central Valley of California, though increasing numbers winter in Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Texas, and the north-central highlands of Mexico¹. Map courtesy of Terry Sohl at South Dakota Birds and Birding.

The Ross’s Goose is the smallest variety of the white geese that breed in North America. They look like a small Snow Goose but they have a shorter neck and a rounder head. At the base and sides of its smaller beak, the Ross’s Goose has species-specific vascular wartlike protuberances or caruncles which become more prevalent with age¹ (more apparent on full sized image).

They also lack the “grinning black lips” of their larger Snow Goose cousin.

They are fairly easy to tell apart in a mixed flock by their size and the lack of the “black grin”

Their heads are usually whiter than the larger Snow Goose at winter feeding grounds, probably because their smaller bill is adapted for feeding on short blades and shoots of grasses and sedges as opposed to the roots and tubers the larger geese dig through the mud for.