Day 207 - WARNING - Cuteness Overload in York Part 1

Canada Gosling amongst daisys at York University

Hi all today's Day 207 and as you know I've recently been at York University from yesterday's post. I showed some pictures of baby grebes and they weren't the only baby birds there. As you also know from yesterday's post there are lots of quite large lakes around the campus which are well populated by geese and ducks. Now I didn't realise exactly how many of these there were until I walked around the whole place. You can see exactly how many geese there were from this video here:

Today I thought Id'do a few facts on each type of gosling I saw, I've linked to my posts where I've covered these birds before. So, here are the facts:

Canada Geese:

• Their eggs weigh quite a lot but it's actually only 3.5% of there usual 4.6kg weight. If you're extremely good at maths then you'll know that their egg weight is only 163g!

Canada Goose and gosling

• The standard Canada Gosling usually only has between 4 and 6 siblings in each brood, there is only one brood a year.

• Eggs hatch in 28-30 days and chicks fledge 40-48 days later

• Goslings only breed once they reach 3 years which is half of their life as they live for an average of 6 years.

Greylag Geese

Graylag gosling

• There eggs weighs a quite remarkable 5% of the average Greylag adult weight at 160g. (The average Greylag Goose weighs 3,300g.)

• Just like the Canada Geese there are 5-7 eggs in a brood.

• They hatch in a similar time, after 27-28 days but take a little longer to fledge 50-60 days later

• Again like the Canada Goose they breed when they reach 3 years old but they have a slightly longer average lifespan at 8 years old.

Barnacle Geese

Barnacle Goose and goslings

• Barnacle geese are smaller than the first two at just 1.7kg. Their eggs weigh less too but at 107g they are over 10% of their body weight each!

• I don't know if that is why but their average clutch size is smaller at 4-5 eggs.

• They hatch a little quicker, after 24-25 days and fledge after 40-45 days later

• These geese also breed when they reach 3 years old but they have a much longer average lifespan at 14 years old.

Snow Geese

• Snow geese are smaller than the first two species but larger than Barnacles at 2.3kg but I couldn't find their egg-weight.

Snow Gosling

• In fact as they are mainly a North American bird I wasn't able to find out much about their lifespan or hatching time etc. either!

• I will have to do more research and come back to a post  about these birds.  

• So I hope you'll be happy with just a picture of a cute gosling.

If I get time to edit another video watch out for Cuteness Overload Part 2 tomorrow. Off for a great wild adventure though so it may have to be on Sunday.

Hope you enjoyed. 

Z.