An archival painting of the Pink-footed goose (Anser brachyrhynchus).

The legs are stunning. They are bright pink, almost bubble-gum pink. It’s very exciting….They are beautiful geese. Most people had never seen these geese before….What we are looking at is whether the pink-footed geese, with their westward shift [in Greenland] are now migrating with some of the white-fronted geese. It could be theorized that all of these geese have arrived together. It’s an interesting ornithological puzzle.Rachel Farrell, Rhode Island’s leading bird expert, while observing the pair of pinked-foot geese at Hammersmith Farm in Newport.

The pink-footed goose, a bird that is relatively common in Europe, is rare here. The pair making a winter 2007 appearance around Newport, Rhode Island may be the same pair that was apparently seen in Connecticut last year.

Only 15 different pink-footed geese records (sightings of distinct specimens) have reportedly ever been made in the USA.

For more information, read today’s Providence Journal article, “A Wild Goose Chase” by Richard Salit.

An archival painting of the Pink-Headed Duck (Netta caryophyllacea).

The pink-footed goose is not to be confused with the Pink-Headed Duck, the almost legendary avian cryptid from Nepal, supposedly extinct.

Sightings persist of the Pink-Headed Duck. These almost mystic encounters have resulted in one famed 1991 book on the bird, Rory Nugent’s The Search for the Pink-Headed Duck.