Give up?
Look up. Way up. It's the Canada Goose!
And that's right, calling them Canadian Geese is wrong. If I'm out with my camera I run into them so often I rarely take a picture and when I do I usually delete it. But since they are on our banner and since we've covered squirrels, pigeons and seagulls it's really pretty silly that we've ignored them so long. In our limited defense I'll point out we have previously shown an image of a cute little baby Canada Goose so that probably makes it all okay.
There are actually seven subspecies. Interestingly, the Canada Goose can be found in Northern Europe and as far away as Siberia, China and Japan. They didn't arrive in those places in the bilge of a ship either, those regions are all part of their natural habitat so I guess in a way we're lucky they're named after us. Or maybe no one else wanted to be associated with a bird that produces so much poop.
If you go out to the Cranberry Marsh area in Whitby during the fall you can see massive waves of Canada Geese taking off each morning around sunrise. This is at the very farthest cusp of Toronto Wildlife territory but it's really quite a sight so it's well worth the trip.
One final note: as common as they are, Canada Geese are tricky to photograph because of the combination of black and white feathers. Your best bet is to shoot them out of direct sunlight. In the harsh light of day it's almost impossible to expose these guys successfully.
