Anser albifrons. GWFG. This was the bird of the weekend for me, the Greater White-fronted Goose. This picture was taken in Sunnyvale, CA at the water pollution control plant, and it shows an adult on the left and a juvenile on the right. Its nickname is 'speckle-belly' and you can see why from the photo.
GWFG visit the central valley of California during the winter months. These two individuals, seen Saturday in Sunnyvale, were seen outside their normal winter range with a flock of Canada Geese. Out in the central valley yesterday, at Staten Island Road (near Walnut Grove), we saw and heard many of these geese as well as white geese (Snow and Ross's Geese), Cackling Geese ("aleutian" race), and Sandhill Cranes during the evening fly-in to the flooded fields where the birds feel safe from predators at night. In the morning they will fly out of the flooded fields and disperse to fields where they will graze all day.
GWFG have a higher pitched 'honk' than the other geese and after listening for a while, I was able to pick their voice out of the thousands of other 'honking' geese. Size-wise they are smaller than Canada Geese, and about the same size as Snow Geese.
The GWFG is a plentiful species, whereas its cousin, the Lesser White-fronted Goose is considered endangered. The LWFG is found in Europe, not North America, and is smaller than the GWFG.
For more information on the GWFG please follow the link: http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Greater_White-fronted_Goose/id
For information on the LWFG follow this link: http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/species/index.html?action=SpcHTMDetails.asp&sid=377
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