Michelle, tweeters,

Regarding how a white (domesticated variety) goose can end up with Canada
Geese;

A few times now I've watched the process on Green Lake, Seattle. One
strategy of Canada Geese is to pool all young that hatch around the same
time in the same nesting area and have the (presumably) oldest/most
experienced pair take care of them. Sometimes the adult parents of some of
the "usurped" young do hang around the crche periphery. In the spring, if
you inspect a large group of young geese closely, you may be able to
distinguish several distinct age classes (a couple of days to weeks age
difference).

If a domesticated goose manages to lay a clutch of eggs and hatch them, she
stands a chance "loosing" her bright yellow fluff-ball young to the local
Canada Geese. This happened to one domesticated goose on Green Lake last
year. The domesticated goose hung around the Canada Geese group with her
young for about a week, constantly being driven away by the Canada Goose
gander. The same domesticated goose turned around and "adopted" a female
Mallard with her clutch of young. Quite comical to see the troupe traveling
the lake....

Another scenario is that the more aggressive Canada Geese manage to keep the
domesticated geese (on Green Lake) from establishing a nest on the small
island in the lake. If a domesticated goose manages to lay one or more eggs
in a Canada Goose nest (so-called egg dumping; during the egg-laying phase
the nest is left unattended for extended periods), this may result in
domesticated geese growing up as part of the Canada Goose family.

I too have used domesticated geese "markers" to follow Canada Goose family
group movements around the north end of Seattle.

As an aside, if the domesticated goose described by Michelle was all white,
and if it was a barnyard goose (domesticated variety of the Greylag (Anser
anser)), it most likely would be a male. The females of this domesticated
variety usually have some brown and/or gray in their plumage.

Cheers,
Martin Muller, Seattle
MartinMuller at email.msn.com