Ross's Goose is basically a reduced version of the white morph snow goose (40% smaller). It also has a smaller bill in proportion to its body, the bill has a bluish base, and the bill lacks the black "grin patch."
One of my goals was to find and photograph a Ross's goose on our recent visit to Salton Sea, my second visit in two weeks. In one photo, taken early in the morning near the Sonny Bono Salton Sea NWR off of Vendel Road, I got a less-than-perfect photo of several Ross's geese, primarily identified by the blue bases on their bills. In the photo below, note the front goose to the left of center which has a black horizontal line on its bill - that is the grin patch. The goose immediately behind it does not have the grin patch, but does have a dark patch at the base of the bill. To the right of the photo, behind a fuzzy brown goose, are the heads of two other geese lacking grin patches and with the dark patch at the base of their bills. The identified geese are the Ross's geese.
I hope to get a better photo some day, but I'm happy I got at least one, though lacking in clarity.
It's actually pretty amazing that you got a picture at all. The difference seems pretty minor. Of course, there were about 10,000 geese to photograph!
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