I adore watching young Cape Barren Geese.
1/1600, f/8.0, ISO 800
Young geese are very subtly marked compared with the adult birds. Their gentle brown eyes will become bright red. Their greyish ceres will become bright green-yellow. Their light grey caps will become bright white… I think I need to share a portrait of an adult bird to show the differences. I’ll be right back.
1/1600, f/7.1, ISO 640
I see Cape Barren Geese whenever I’m lucky enough to visit Phillip Island, Victoria. They were close to extinction a few decades ago so it’s a real buzz to see them grazing happily. I’ve shared images of newly hatched goslings in the past, and also a post of a pair of drunk geese that were quite hilarious to watch. These posts can be found using the search box. I’d usually add a link but there’s been a recent update behind the scenes and it’s not as intuitive to use as previous updates. Oh I think I’ve worked it out: Egg Tooth! and the hilarious Drunk as a Goose
Hopefully I’ll be able to make this week’s post look reasonable. My apologies to subscribers who missed out on emails for the past couple of weeks, hopefully that has been fixed with the update (thank you Joy!)
Happy birding
Kim
~ Facebook page Kim Wormald – lirralirra
~ Facebook group Ethical Bird Photography
Gorgeous! I love Cape Barren Geese. I hadn’t realised they had been close to extinction. Sadly they can be recreationally shot on Flinders Island
It’s really interesting to see the variances between adult and youngsters. Very sweet photos!
Oh my goodness, why, WHY do people have to get their thrills by shooting native wildlife. I’m glad you liked the geese Alyssa, they are a good news story (except on Flinders Island!)
Beautiful as always!
Thank you Stephen
Woo Hoo. The ability to follow comments is back.
The Cape Barren Geese are beautiful birds – and at least the youngsters are identifiable. Some baby penguins look so very different that explorers believed they were a new species.
It took a while, sorry! And subscribers weren’t getting emails either
How interesting about the penguins, I didn’t know that