A goose among geese.

[Moonshot_1]

Out and about yesterday. Had the camera with me. Kind of a new hobby. Anyway...
Went down to the park in our city. Spring Lake Park. As the name implies, there is a small lake.
It has been invaded by Canadians. Canadian geese. An estimate would be around a thousand+.

It is kind of sad as it has become a giant goose toilet. They used to allow folks to shoot them in a restricted season. But that was a while back.

Anyhow, imagine a sea of Canadian geese and in the middle of them all is this guy.



Not a flock of these guys, just the one white headed goose.
I took this from a ways a way with a telephoto lens. Initially I thought is was some kind of seagull. Got home and zoomed in and it is a goose.

And it just sat there. All the other geese were a mingling with each other doing goose stuff, but this guy had his own zone among the crowd.

Is this just a Canadian Goose anomaly or is it some other kind of goose?

Did try to look it up and there are variations of the Canadian goose but not seeing anything specific to the photo.

Thought it to be kind of cool looking.

[csj]

It would appear to be a snow goose.

It is also known as blue goose, and ross's goose. (as far as i can see)



The picture shows the light morph, and the dark morph.

I could be totally wrong. Could be something different.

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Snow_Goose/id#

[Jess from VA]

We had to run the Canadian geese off our lakefront (island) property.  Their toxic poop rots the grass and everything else.

Seeing the thousands of them at the Jack Miner Bird Sanctuary in Ontario Canada was amazing.

Watching my wife walk out into a giant flock to feed the new fuzzy goslings (babies) was hilarious as the adult geese felt she was a risk and attacked.  They ran her out of there at top speed.  I told her not to do it.

The Air Force used geese as perimeter security (between fence lines); not only will they attack, they make enough noise to wake the dead. 


 

[Moonshot_1]

It would appear to be a snow goose.

It is also known as blue goose, and ross's goose. (as far as i can see)



The picture shows the light morph, and the dark morph.

I could be totally wrong. Could be something different.

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Snow_Goose/id#

The thing that had my interest was that there was only this one white headed goose among the masses of Canadian geese. Really kind of stuck out. If there were a small flock of them hanging together it would make sense. But it was just the one solitary guy.

[Valker]

Just to clarify, they are “Canada” geese, not “Canadian”.

[John Schmidt]

They're gathering around here by the hundreds, couple weeks ago it was thousands...all headed south. I guess you all know where the wild goose goes: about a half inch off center! 

[cookiedough]

our small lake in town has over 1000 of those buggers making a mess all over the grass around the lake. Village tried coyota howl speakers and other LOUD noises on the island in the middle of the lake and that did not work.  Village encourages dog owners to run them off the area, but they just keep coming back.  DNR contacted said nothing they can do.  I suggested to village shoot a few 100 with a 12 gauge for village goose fry,  but that is illegal need a permit from DNR who does not care to do anything about it.  Every year see a few dead ones laying across the main hwy. going by the small lake.  Over 1000 geese in a 300x300 ft lake is too much not to do anything.  NO wonder why the lake is stinky and weedy every year.  I do not go down there anymore to fish since the smell and stepping on the poo nearly every step is not good either.

[da prez]

  We had a Tennent that was a full time goose herder (chaser) with a border collie.  Their job was to chase geese from corporate offices and anywhere else they were needed. The geese would learn not to congregate at these areas.  

                                                    da prez

[csj]

I've had a pair of bushnell 8x30 binoculars in my vehicle for 20 years.
The huge yearly temperature swing does not seem to affect them.


In the last few years I noticed a different bird that those little 8x30 could not see.

I found a fairly reasonable set of 15x70 Celestron that does a better job


I was then able to see this little odd duck. It's called a Bufflehead. (not my photo)


They often are found in a group of ten or more.

The point of posting all of this is, my new optics are not good enough to pick out the
irredescence that is seen in the picture.

So, what 'better' optics could I look for that would help me see it?

[Crackerborn]

I carry a set of Leopold 8x32 in the truck for spotting game off season. For a reasonable set of binoculars look at Hawk brand, made (supposedly) in UK. I bought a pair a few years ago for the bride to watch the birds and I get no peace when she spots a new species on the feeder. I have that brand scope on an rifle that holds a very nice pattern as far as I can comfortably shoot game.