Unusual Goose Doubled

My attempt at featuring what is now quite a hefty backlog of duck photos is on hold again. You may recall that a week ago I posted about an unusual goose at Falmer Pond, and speculated on whether it was a hybrid of a Canada and Greylag goose. I’m no closer to answering that question, but now have a pair them to wonder about.

Pair of unknown geese at Falmer
The two geese were gliding across the pond when I arrived, early morning.
Geese (unknown)
Yellow legs and a broad white face patch are the main distinguishing marks. Canada geese have black legs.
Geese swimming
They are very much a pair.
Goose hissing
They also hiss a lot!

Geese hissing

Geese kissing
Or is it ‘kiss a lot’?
Goose close-up hissing
That’s one heck of a tongue!

If you do know what species of goose these are please let me know, here or via the Permuted Twitter feed.

Camera note: all photos taken with the Canon 7D Mark II and EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens.

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This Post Has 4 Comments

  1. Andy

    20 Mar 2015

    My first thought was a hybrid, then out of curiosity I did a search of search of geese of Great Britain and came across this web page
    http://www.gobirding.eu/Photos/HybridGeese.php
    So, I would speculate as you, some sort of hybrid: domestic goose x Canada Goose.
    Interesting all the same.

    1. Words

      20 Mar 2015

      Andy, that’s a great link. Thanks for finding it. I would stick with Greylag/Canada cross due to the colour of the beak, but clearly these natural hybrids aren’t that unusual.

  2. Darko

    21 Mar 2015

    The first one invited a friend and soon you will have a big party over there 😀

    At first I thought it was an isolated case but it seems there are more of them. Hybrid outbreak? Melting pot in geese nations? :shrugs:

    1. Words

      23 Mar 2015

      Darko, I suspect it’s not that uncommon, although these are the first ones I’ve seen. The Canada geese (proper ones) were there today. It seems the pond is becoming a good meeting place (or ‘watering hole’) for all sorts.

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