Egyptian Geese: father goose in early light

Another plumage and speculum shot. Better in large ("L").

This is the rather magnificent father goose. He is a very beautiful individual, but a complete fusspot: the mother is relatively relaxed (she seems to know that I'm not going to do anything too surprising or threatening), but he chatters and chunters whenever I am even vaguely near him or his family. He makes an interesting danger alert gesture: he arches his neck and bobs his head (like a slow peck) in the direction of the threat repetitively, whilst grumbling.
It possibly doesn't help that I mutter back at him: "What are you fussing about, silly goose?", "What?! No, I just want to cuddle them...", "How dare you?!"...

He really is a particularly beautiful goose though. His coverts are a wonderful, bright coppery colour, and his head is very contrasty. Egyptian geese don't exhibit reliable sexual dimorphism in terms of plumage or colouration; the sexes differ in size subtly, and the males tend to make hissing sounds while the females tend to make honking sounds. There is, however, much variation between individuals: while the overall pattern is the same (although an appreciable minority lack eye patches), there is quite a lot of variation in tones from predominantly greyish-browns through to these brighter coppery-browns and rufous colouration.

I didn't take many photos today, and this was one of the earliest: the quality of the light was tricky to work with, but I was pleased with the look of this one.