Greater White-fronted Goose

Status Three records. The species was first recorded here in 1926, when T.S. Pattillo shot one at Oak Island, near Wallace, Cumberland County, on October 26 (specimen now in the Nova Scotia Museum). The next one, feeding with a flock of Canada Geese, was shot near Debert, Colchester County, on 12 November 1949 by Carl Adshade. It had been wounded previously, as evidenced by a scar on the base of its lower mandible, and was heavily infested with lice. The species was not reported again until 3 November 1961, when one was shot at Paradise, Annapolis County, by Donald Bailey. He took the strange specimen to Walter E. Whitehead at Round Hill, Annapolis County, who was able to identify it.

Remarks The subspecies Anser albifrons flavirostris, to which the 1926 and 1949 birds belonged, breeds on the west coast of Greenland. In winter it migrates to the western parts of the British Isles and, rarely, to the Atlantic coast of North America.