Domestic Geese!

I got very excited today because I thought I had observed two swan geese in the pond at Wat Khao Look Chang,  Petchaburi province. I had major doubts because my fieldbooks indicate this is an extremely rare bird in Thailand. However I got snapping and had a good look at the drawings in both my fieldbooks and the more I looked the more I thought this could be the real thing. So I phoned Phil Round, the foremost authority on Thailand's birds, and he advised the geese would likely be  domesticated and that such  breeds have a large knob at the end of their bills. I think the photo show this to be the case!

domesticated swan geese, Wat Khao Look Chang, 01.01.10

This links will take you to an interesting article published by Cornell Lab of Ornithology.  I will quote the author directly:

Whenever I hear about a report of a Greater White-fronted Goose in upstate New York, I always want to hear a few details to assure that the observer (especially a novice observer) did not confuse a domestic goose. (My italics).

The curse of the novice! I guess this encounter is yet another rite of passage in my development as a birder. Yup still wearing my learner plates! I wasted a fair amount of time on these geese which would have been better spent in the forest! You see birding is by no means a cake walk. But it is good to have encountered this issue with domesticated birds because it is inevitable that it was going to intrude at some time.