Genetic Rarity

It's a white leucistic Canada goose, not an albino.  Leucism occurs when there's partial loss of pigment.  His head and neck are characteristic of a normal Canada goose.  He's been hanging out all day with a couple of regular geese.  I'm just hoping nobody spots him and decides to take him as a trophy.  I'm always fearful of people who think it makes sense to bag the last white rhino or the biggest elephant.  He's obviously made it to adulthood so we're good so far.

The extra picture is my second crippled goose who has been with me now for two days, hanging out on my back doorstep.  You can see from the picture that he kind of drags his left leg.  Yesterday I had to run interference for him to keep a couple of other geese from hurting him.  He already has a chunk out of his neck and they've robbed him of most of his tail feathers.  I actually think he understood that I was trying to help so that he could eat in peace.  

There are two sets of babies now -- six in each group.  They are so cute but I think the cutest part is the soft little snuffling sounds they make.  There's always the high comedy though when they pull a piece of grass up and fall back on their little feathered butts from the effort.