White Canada goose

[lew]

There was a flock of Canada Geese flying very low over the house this morning to land on the lake and one of them was snow white with a black beak.

 

If he'd been alone I would have figured he was a small swan but he was about the same size as all his buds.

 

I looked it up on Google and found some pictures of them so I spose they aren't really that un-common but I thought it was pretty interesting.

 

Here's a picture from Google

 

[SlowPoke]

Close enough to a turkey lol

[Sinker]

Neat eh? That one in the photo looks like a cross with a canada and domestic goose, judging by the orange legs. Here is a picture of a leucistic (white) goose I shot last fall. This one looked snow white as it came to the decoys, but once in hand, it was more like faded.

 

 

Basically, its missing a pigment in its feathers that protect it from UV, so they fade to a whitish colour over time. There are lots of variations of it as well. Google leucism to see more.

 

S.

[Sinker]

Are you sure its not a snow goose? Does it have black wingtips? It could very well be a snow. There seems to be more and more of them around every year.

 

S.

[lew]

I never noticed black wingtips but it's definetely possible, so it could indeed have been a snow goose tagging along with the Canadas.

 

I see the odd swan flying around this area and as I said I thought maybe that's what it was at first but he seemed too small.

 

Anyways, it was certainly kool to see.

[kickingfrog]

Interesting photo. Notice the leg and chin colour on the middle one? The back goose looks more "normal".

[Sinker]

Yes, I noticed the middle goose too. Odd one for sure. Could also be a hybrid. No two are the same when it comes to birds. They all have subtle differences. Pretty cool stuff when you get to see lots of them. Most people don't even notice.......too busy looking at technology!!

 

S.