Greetings,

We hate to be contrary about unusual bird sightings, but in the interest of accuracy we offer the following comments. 

Heather Forcier's excellent photo of the hybrid goose at Shelburne Bay clearly shows that it is indeed huge in comparison to the Canada Goose. White-fronted Geese are distinctly smaller than Canada Geese, so a hybrid between them could not be larger than either parent. Hybrids generally show intermediate patterns between parents, some of these patterns may even appear to be new, but truly novel features, such as being larger than either parent, simply don't happen. The goose in question is clearly a hybrid, but with domestic Greylag Goose, not White-fronted. Domestic Greylags are very large and can show the white 'front' exhibited by this hybrid. The bird in question also has the thick neck and very heavy vertical sculpting of the neck feathering of its domestic-origin parent.

For more pictues of hybrids and discussion, see Kevin McGowan's website: 
birds.cornell.edu/crows/domgeese.htm 

Happy birding,

Walter Ellison & Nancy Martin

23460 Clarissa Road
Chestertown, MD 21620
phone: 410-778-9568
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"A person who is looking for something doesn't travel very fast" - E. B. White (in "Stuart Little")

"Are there *ever* enough birds?" - Connie Hagar as quoted by Edwin Way Teale in "Wandering through Winter"