When is a white goose a Ross's Goose?

These two birds were observed and photographed by Lois Miller and Knute Andersson at Langlois, Oregon. Their posting started a typical OBOL-ian flurry of "Here's why I think it is..." posts, of which I was just as guilty as anyone.

After a ridiculous amount of time using ImageJ software to play with this photo, and Ross's Goose and Snow Goose images from Google Image searches, I believe the birds to be to be Ross's Geese, but leave the slight possibility that they are Ross's-Snow hybrids (as shown on p. 33 of the Smithsonian Field Guide to Birds.)  My graph in THIS SLIDESHOW may or may not be super-crisp science,  but it shows I have tried.  It has been pointed out that the last slide is of a Ross's compared to a GREATER Snow Goose....severe chagrin on my part!
Oh well ... it was fun...

Busy Beavers at Lewis and Clark Elementary

On Thursday of spring Break, I placed the Moultrie Trail Cam down at the beaver dam on the Lewis and Clark Nature Trail and got lucky with these pics (I have video clips too that are really cool - email me if interested). Looks like there were two adults (BIG!) and one juvenile. Seeing them work on their dam at night, rather than just seeing the handiwork by day, is really rather amazing.