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Update Dec 5th: Larry Fischer identified four white-headed hybrids, presumably from the same brood,
as the birds which were present in the same fields last winter. Last year they
arrived as a family party with mixed parentage, the adults being a Greater White-fronted Goose and a Canada Goose.
The second family of hybrids were present in the same fields, and again one parent was a Greater White-fronted Goose. The hybrids were hatch-year birds, closely associating with an adult Greater White-fronted Goose.
On Nov. 27th, I couldn't see any clear evidence that another parent
was associating with them, even though I managed to track this
family party through three different sets of fields during the day. Of
the other parent, the characters shown by the young would strongly suggest Canada Goose.
As Larry Fischer mentioned, it would be interesting to speculate whether the same returning Greater White-fronted Goose is producing different types of hybrid young, or whether different Greater White-fronts were involved in both cases.
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