Bird Guide Canada Goose Scientific Name Branta canadensis Status Originally introduced from North America as an ornamental waterfowl, it is now the most familiar goose in England. Much scarcer in Scotland and Wales, and few in Ireland. Habitat Lakes, parks, gravel pits and farmland. Description Large brownish goose with distinctive black neck and white chin strap. Size 90 - 100cm (35 - 40")

By Percy Trett

In 1995 Paul Jary had a cob mute swan and a Canada goose nest and bring up a brood of five, untidy-looking crossbred goslings, but this is not unusual in areas where swans and geese frequent. Normally the offspring tend to be infertile, though this may not be so in this case, for he tells me that this year one crossbred male has now mated with a Canada goose and one crossbred female of the original brood has taken up with an old cob whose mate was killed during March.

So, it appears that he has wasted no time in forming a new attachment. It will be interesting to see what the young, if any, of those associations turn out like, for the original crossbred birds looked rather tatty. All had swan-shaped bills, dirty white faces, grey speckled plumage and creamy white feet and legs. The latter had the odd and comical effect of making them appear to be wearing white socks and tennis shoes.

Twenty years ago, a similar union took place on Barton Broad and the young likewise had cream-coloured feet which, on the face of it, seems rather strange because both Canada geese and mute swans have black legs and paddles. Another and more worrying aspect is that these hybrids have inherited and accentuated the dark side of both parents' natures, which is their intolerance of having other webbed-foot fowl near them.

Swans are notorious for treadling young ducklings underwater with their huge paddles until they drown, while Canada geese are just downright cantankerous, especially during the breeding season.

Paul rears wildfowl, hence his interest in hybridisation and is only thankful that he has up to the present been able to discourage the large birds from nesting anywhere near his rearing marshes and pools, but feels they may be a problem to him in the future. Luckily, hybridisation between geese and swans is unusual for though the mute swan population is nationally declining, we seem to have an abundance of them in Broadland.

Similarly, Canada geese have become far too numerous and constitute a threat to local farmers' crops, especially winter wheat. It is not their grazing to which the farmers object, for winter wheat seems to grow stronger after being grazed and sheep used to be turned out on to it for this purpose.

No, it is the birds' droppings. These will "scorch" the ground anywhere within 18 inches of them, killing off the young plants.

Illustrations by Dave Nurney from - The Pocket Guide to the Birds Of Britain and North-West Europe By Chris Kightley and Steve Madge © Pica Press and reproduced with kind permission.