Bar-headed/Greylag geese with their goslings

I love visiting St. James's Park, which is just in front of Buckingham Palace in London.  It is great to escape from the bustle of the city and wander around the lake looking at the wildlife there.  Last week I came across this beautiful Bar-headed goose with the family.  Below is a photograph of the Bar-headed goose with a young gosling.

Bar-headed goose and little gosling

It was great to be able to get a close-up of a gosling - how lovely and fluffy it is.

Close-up of a gosling

I was fascinated to realise that the parents appeared to be a Bar-headed goose and a Greylag goose.  They had two little gosling with them and the whole family was enjoying the sunshine.

Bar-headed and Greylag geese with their 2 small goslings

At one point, the Bar-headed parent began to get concerned about all the people gawping at her family and tried to shoo them away.  Of course, no-one moved and everyone wanted to get closer to the super-cute little goslings.

Bar-headed and Greylag geese with a gosling

I think that the Bar-headed goose is very pretty and love the stripes across the head.  It will be interesting to see how the youngsters turn out when they are fully grown - will they look more like the Bar-head or the Greylag goose?

Close-up of Bar-headed goose's head

Anyway, I was not really that sure if the Bar-headed goose was really part of the family as there was a second Greylag hanging around with them - only it appeared to be in the vicinity of the family and did not actually look as though it was part of it.  So I went back to St. James's Park again yesterday morning and searched for them.  

My luck was in!  I came across them quite easily and, yes, this time there were just mum and dad (Bar-headed and Greylag) with the youngsters - though I do not know who is mum and who is dad and hope that someone out there can help with the identification.  Maybe the Bar-headed goose is the female as it was the smaller of the two and seemed to spend more time watching out for the babies.  The Greylag seemed to be more interested in cleaning it's feathers.  They were the only adult geese with the youngsters, who are both now considerably larger than they were a week ago.

Bar-headed and Greylag geese with large goslings

It was a lovely hot sunny morning and the goslings looked so sweet sitting amongst the daisies in the grass.  Later that day, the heavens opened and I was so glad I had decided to go to the park in the morning.

Two cute Bar-headed/Greylag-mix goslings 

The geese took it in turns to look for food and rest, then look for food and rest.

Greylag and Bar-headed geese with their large gosling

In the photo below, the parent and youngster are more-or-less in the same pose.  I had a lovely time watching the parents and young flitting about in the grass.

Bar-headed goose and gosling strike a pose

The Bar-headed goose really is a gorgeous bird.  I don't think that there are many of them in the wild in the UK.  Someone please correct me if I am wrong.

Bar-headed goose sitting on the grass with some daisies

 Below the parent and youngster are in back-to-back mode.  You not talking to me then?

Bar-headed goose in back-to-back pose with the gosling

The two youngsters carried on looking really cute!

Close-up of one gosling

Close-up of another gosling

I do so adore forgetting the traffic and buildings while I am looking at and taking photographs of the wildlife, and especially the new youngsters in the park.