goosed!!

[georgep]

Anybody have an idea what this goose might be? I don’t!
Saw it yesterday morning among a flock of Canadian geese feeding on a field.

I t was larger than the Canadian geese and used its size to chase other bids off.

From the top

An orange bill with, I think a pale tip, a white face and white mottled head which merged into a long, dark brown neck.
It’s breast was dark light grey, like the pics of white fronted geese I’ve seen but no dark bars. It’s back and wings were dark brown, down to the tail. It’s belly and vent were white/ cream colour, finally orange legs and feet.

Any ideas?

[captaincarot]

swan goose?

greylag?

swangoose x greylag?

[georgep]

certianly not a greylag or swan

[captaincarot]

what makes you say this, the size is about right and i didn't say swan, i said swan goose, go have a mooch round google.

the impression i got from your description frist time was of large grey goose about the size of a canada.

having read it again twice i'd have to add canada x graylag to the list of options.

the trouble is i can never visualise from descriptions very well.
it's one place where a picture is worth a thousand words. you don't happen to have one at all do you?

[Jonathan]

Originally Posted by georgep

certianly not a greylag or swan

It's possibly a domestic goose hybrid (greylag or Canada probably being the other parent). Have a look on the link below, in particular on the 'domestic goose' link on the right:

Hybrid Geese (gobirding.eu)

Cheers
Jonathan

[georgep]

Originally Posted by Jonathan

It's possibly a domestic goose hybrid (greylag or Canada probably being the other parent). Have a look on the link below, in particular on the 'domestic goose' link on the right:

Hybrid Geese (gobirding.eu)

Cheers
Jonathan

That's proved a very useful link . Thank you Jonathan

On looking at the pics I think it likely to be a Barnacle Goose x White-fronted Goose. The only difference with the bird I saw was, the orange bill.
Also thanks to everyone else that took the time to put their suggestions

[captaincarot]

the only problem i see with that id is barnacle x white front would always produce off spring which are smaller than canadas

[RoyW]

Originally Posted by georgep

That's proved a very useful link . Thank you Jonathan

On looking at the pics I think it likely to be a Barnacle Goose x White-fronted Goose. The only difference with the bird I saw was, the orange bill.
Also thanks to everyone else that took the time to put their suggestions

If the general appearance of the plumage was similar to the Barnacle x White-fronted hybrids in the posted link, but the bird was bigger than the other Canada Geese and had an orange bill, then Canada x Greylag is the likely parentage. This is probably the most regularly encountered hybrid combination in UK goose flocks, and they can be quite variable in appearance (especially if the Greylag in the pairing is a bird with 'domestic' genes).

[Picidae]

Agree with Captaincarot, a Barnacle x GWF can be ruled out on size alone. It's also far less likely to get hybrids of wild geese cf. to the domestic mix we can get with both Canada and Greylag flocks.

Description sounds spot on for a domestic Greylag (ie. mixed with some barnyard white geese - hence size). Domestic Greylag will often hybridise with Canada geese, the dark neck suggests that possibility as does it's presence with a Canada flock.

Did it look anything like this (very!) rough interpretation of the plumage you describe? - sometimes it helps to have a visual reference when we don't have photos ime - even if poor!

[RoyW]

Originally Posted by Picidae

Did it look anything like this (very!) rough interpretation of the plumage you describe? - sometimes it helps to have a visual reference when we don't have photos ime - even if poor!

Nice pic Pic!
One that you've just done? Actually perhaps best to deny that, or people will want you to illustrate other descriptions!