Snow Geese and Greater White-Fronted Goose

Snow Geese and Canada Geese

Yesterday, after I had returned from photographing the fog in various areas I started reading my email and noticed on the Rhode Island birding list that there were Snow Geese and a Greater White-Fronted Goose present on Aquidneck Island. Since the locations were given and I know the area since I go down there to photograph at Sachuest, I gathered my son and we went looking for the above named species. In Portsmouth Rhode Island, in a field bordering on Route 138 there was a large flock of Canada geese and with them six snow geese. We found an area to park, got out our cameras and tripods and went and photographed these lovely birds. Snow geese are not common for this area but do occur on a regular basis  and only in small numbers, not as the large numbers that are seen further south in Pennsylvania and Delaware and of course in Bousque del Apache in New Mexico.

Adult and Juvenile Snow Goose

"You watch that way and I will watch this way"

The location for the White-Fronted Goose was given as Green End Road. When I got to the intersection of Third Beach Road and Green End Road, I did not know whether to turn right or left. So I turned to the right and end up traveling into Newport and not finding any fields would geese in them, so turned around and traveled back traverse the portion of the road that we did not travel. As we were slowly driving down the road, we noticed on the right a field with geese in it. Serving the field with my binoculars, at first I did not notice anything but Canada Geese. But, suddenly a small darker goose with orange legs became visible. As it turned its face toward me, I said that is what we were looking for. So again out came the cameras and tripods and we obtained some photographs of this rare species for the area. It wasn't a life bird because when I checked my e-bird list, I had seen a Greater White-Front Goose in 2009.

White-fronted Goose with Canada Geese- notice the size difference

White-fronted Goose