Lake Visitors Not Wild Snow Geese

* The item on Sept. 28 about the geese at Calabasas Lake was sadly in error.

From the excellent color photographs, it was obvious to most birders that these were not wild snow geese. Snow geese have a distinctive “grin patch,” a dark line on the lower edge of the bill. The black wingtips are visible when the bird is on the ground as they extend beyond the white tail when the wing is folded. Neither the grin patch nor black wing tips could be seen when I visited the lake.

The blue form of the snow goose indeed has an all-white head, but the bulky birds (seen by those quoted in the article) have much gray on the head. The birds behaved like city park ducks and geese, and I’m sure they have made threatening moves toward people and have nipped them. Wild birds would tend to be spooky and avoid people.

It was somewhat surprising that the animal shelter man (Bruce Richards, Agoura Animal Shelter director) seemed to accept these birds as snow geese. If they were really wild birds, they would be protected, and the California Fish and Game Department should have been called to settle the problem. Instead, homes were found for some of them.

SANDY WOHLGEMUTH

Reseda