One of these things is not like the others........

Tig · Dec 22, 2012

MossRoad said:
You will soon tire of stepping in goose poop. Get a pair of swans to keep them away.

Geese breed here. In spring the rain neutralizes the mess reasonably well, so the families are welcome until July. By then they are leaving the mess of a herd of poodles, so it's time for them to move on so I can enjoy my own yard.
We also have swans. Mutes and at the moment also migrant trumpeters. Either one will make you wonder if a leprechaun elephant had a dump in your yard.
Mutes, once fed by humans become a nuisance. Harassing you in your yard and chasing kids out of the water. They are beautiful, but also beggars and bullies. I would not turn my back on one of those pinching panhandlers.

Trumpeters on the other hand can give you the ambiance of a 24 hr a day traffic jam at the edge of your yard.
I love to see each of there critters come around, but I also don't mind when they leave.

tcreeley · Dec 22, 2012

RobertBrown said:
That looks a lot like the goose on my pond but... If you google snow geese you will see images of geese that look much different, much whiter.
I'm thinking these waterfowl are interbreeding more frequently than one would expect.
On the Confusing Domestic goose thread:
The image of the swan goose looks to be an African goose with the large irregular beak.
African goose - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Swan Goose - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I think it is seasonal and maturational plumage variations along with sub species differences.
Nature Photography
Native Indians of North America have long observed the seasonal migration of snow geese, but it was only recently that their nesting grounds were discovered. Aptly, they were named Chen Hyperboreus meaning "from beyond the north" and blue geese, once thought to be a different species but now understood to be just a 'phase' of the white snow geese, were named Chen Caerulescens. Now scientists use the latter scientific name to refer to both phases of the snow geese. The sexes of both phases look alike. White phase birds are pure white with black wing tips and pink beak and feet while juveniles have grey white plumage in their first year. Blue phase adult birds have white heads but greyish blue body color and juveniles have slate grey plumage all over, including the head. Blue geese migrate through the prairies of the mid-west and are rarely found on the West Coast. The phases of blue and white snow geese is known as plumage dimorphism. During the wintering season, snow geese will exhibit rusty patches on their head and the undersides of their body and feeding on water with high iron content causes this temporary coloration.
View attachment 293971

When the I hear the Canada geese- it is the honking- often in the evening when it is getting overcast and a storm is still a day and a 1/2 off. At those times they are getting ready to go. I think they migrate at night. It is fun to watch the flocks meet up and the sets of v's that come off into the center. We have a small lake a mile away that they use as a stop off coming and going. When they pass over you can almost feel the beat of the wings!