VIDEO: The Geese of My Beaver Bog

Canada Geese Defend Their Nesting Site
March 31, 2011

Canada geese did not nest here until about three years ago. They would fly through on their way north to Canada. Many ducks did, too. I have photos of mergansers and wood ducks that rested here on their way north. However, once the Canada geese decided to nest here, only mallard ducks have dropped in and/or nested here. I have gotten used to them and now actually enjoy watching the geese court, brood, and finally, raise their chicks. I have even seen their eggs when the mother rearranges herself on the nest.

But before they make a nest, the geese have a lot of work to do. Geese don’t necessarily mate for life. They lose spouses, just like people do, to death and infidelity. They don’t pine away forever if either happens, but they may lose the breeding season and have to wait until the next year. They usually, but not always, return to the same pond each year for breeding.

We had several geese for about three weeks stop in the afternoon and then leave at dawn the next day. But last week, “our” geese returned and stayed. They serenely walk side by side about the beaver bog, occasionally swim, sleep on the ice, and just take it easy. And every year, a solitary male challenges the mated male. This lone male may be a youngster or a widower, But he wants to entice the mated female to be his mate. The mated male will attack the unmated male and drive him off a safe distance. The female may join her partner in attacking the stranger. Eventually, the lonely male will take off and cruise other ponds for women. It could be one hour to a few days before he decides to try his luck somewhere else. The slide show above shows you the attacks that the mated pair makes on a solitary male. On many slides, you can just see the head of the mated male on the left side of the photo as he runs or flies in for his attack.

The other problem that the resident geese have is another couple that wants the same nesting site. The arguments between the two couples are often more violent than the arguments between a mated pair and an interloper male. Males and females will fight and I have even seen them tag team other couples. The male will attack, hands the fight off to the female, and if the strange couple is not scared off, he will go back in. We had a skirmish like this today.

The new geese arrived yesterday. Yesterday they stayed far away from our geese on the other side of the bog in the back pond although at times they would stroll a bit closer to the front pond and our geese would begin to pay attention. The new geese then returned to the back pond without a confrontation.

Today, the new couple tried to come into the pond that our geese are considering for a nest (there is no telling where they will, or if they will, build their nest).. We watched as our geese attacked the newcomers. They were sly. They walked side by side just as the do in peaceful times. But their necks would begin to extend as they got closer to the new geese. And suddenly, our male would run full tilt for the new male. After a few seconds of chasing the other male, our male would break off the attack and step aside. Then our female, who had stayed still during the attack, would run in and chase the other male. Sometimes, as our male chased the new male, our female chased the new female. But either way they decided to attack, our mated geese would reconnoiter after their attack and then extend their necks, bob their heads at each other and repeatedly touch their bills together. This cracked me up. The geese were giving each other high-fives!

If you would like to learn more about the geese in your ponds, read The Geese of Beaver Bog by Bernd Heinrich With some knowledge of goose behavior, you can enjoy observing them much more. Heinrich, my favorite nature writer, is a professor at the University of Vermont. His writing engages you. You won’t put the book down. Heinrich wrote the book after he observed his own geese on his pond for a season or two.

As I mentioned above, this slide show shows the confrontations between a mated pair of geese and a solitary male. The action was taken with a very long lens on an extremely overcast day. The photo quality if poor, but the messages of the geese is clear. This is the first time that I have made a slide show in Lightroom. I have no idea where the first couple of frames flash a bright light. There is no audio track. I hope you enjoy it!

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Goslings on the Beaver Pond

These four goslings hatched last Saturday, May 16: it was dusk when I tried to photograph them this past week and even with the tripod I didn't have enough light so the shutter was slow and the geese were moving. But it's the only one I have of the babies. They are so tiny and yellow! And very well behaved. The parents keep them sheltered and out of sight in the sunlight. It is touching to see how the six geese swim the ponds together.

Before the babies hatched, the mother (above and below) left the nest twice a day that I observed. She left for breakfast and supper. Here she has returned after supper, preens her feathers and settles in for the night.

The father was only around when the mother left the nest. Otherwise, he was always out on the ponds patrolling the area. There is another pair of geese on the far back pond and this dad would sit in the rushes observing them. If they got too close to his nest, he would beat them back.

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My Happy Birthday

Friday was my birthday. And I'm not going to tell which one it was! I usually never talk about it at all. But this was an especially wonderful and loving birthday.

My children, so many friends and John all made the day exciting and fun. Wildflower & carrot seeds for my new garden, Flame-Broiled Sudoku, a reading lamp for when we lose power, a scallop dinner at the Weathervane in Lebanon, New Hampshire, cards, phone calls, e-mails, Facebook messages, donations to Northwoods from England (thank you, Ruth!), Connecticut (thank you, Anna!), Washington, DC (thank you, Dan!), and California (thank you, Marj!), an iTunes certificate . . . what a day! To make it more special, John came up from New Hampshire on Thursday and we drove back to his place on Friday afternoon (see the next post for the reasons why). These loving remembrances make a woman feel needed, loved and not forgotten.

The weekend continued with the gooslings hatching on the beaver ponds in Vermont. Matt has e-mailed me saying how the four babies are swimming about with the parents. It's going to be wonderful to try to capture them with my camera. And Amy e-mailed that my New Hampshire licensure for mathematics grades 5-8 has arrived at the house! And of course, there have been photos (this photo is of a cone flower seed head in John's field) and encounters with birds.

The weekend is winding down now. The Regional Educational Laboratory Program gave each of us participants a $25 Dunkin Donuts gift certificate. Of course, there are no Dunkin Donuts within 20 miles of Barton. But there are here in New Hampshire! I found one in New London, NH this morning and it was the best Dunkin Donuts I've ever visited.

Thank you, everybody! This is a year to remember — for so many reasons both professional and personal.

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New Hampshire Geese

This Canada goose pair have been devouring John's grass. It's amazing how much they eat. You notice how they stand back to back? It's for defense. They can cover nearly 360° so that predators are quickly seen. They don't seem to have a nest because they spend all their time eating and not brooding eggs. Be sure to read the book below if you are interested in the natural history of Canada geese. It was invaluable for my observations.

Ducks & Geese Set

Technorati Tags: Canada geese
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Signs of Spring: Canada Geese

It's a glorious morning when you hear your geese honking in the bog. They came back last weekend and are still here, so I will assume they are the breeding pair that has been here the past two summers. John saw a third goose fly in and be beaten off.

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Camera Critters: A Disagreement Between Geese

This pair of Canada geese were in the Duquette hayfield the other day. They were cheerfully together, until . . .

This one on the left said "Nope, it's better over here."

And the mate finally followed after a long goose dispute.

Thank you so much for visiting!
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clickCamera Critters or the graphic above.

My other Camera Critters post features Holstein calves.

Technorati Tags: Canada geese, Branta canadensis
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Blackbird and Canada Goose

Sometimes you see unexpected things when you download photos to the computer. In a series of shots taken of this Canada goose, I saw this red-winged blackbird flying through the shot. Forever frozen in flight on a beautiful day.

Technorati Tags: Red-winged blackbird, Agelaius phoeniceus, Branta canadensis, Canada goose 

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Goose Walk

As Amy and I left the driveway yesterday to go out to eat, this pair of geese was swimming right next to the mailbox. I pulled over for photos and they did not like that.

I was amazed to see that the water was so shallow. But this is flood water which will be dry in a month. I shouldn't have been surprised. I guess their big feet kept hitting bottom.

One goose led the other through a break in the brush to go to the main pond in the back of the photo. They weren't in a hurry, but they weren't going to pose for me either. Silly geese!

All photos, when clicked, will open full-sized in a new window.

Technorati Tags: Canadian geese, Branta canadensis
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Crafty Green Poet: Domesticated

On October 16, 2007, the geese began to fly south. It was, for me, a sad moment

This photo will open, full-sized, in a new window when clicked.

Crafty Green Poet: Domesticated:

Imprinted at birth by a human,
you never learnt to be what you are.
Flightless and petted, you enjoy comforts
of home and hearth,
insulated from the harsh
rules of nature that made you.

Winter air fills with honking
geese in joyful formation
high in unthinkable sky.
You look up, an ache in your bird’s brain
before waddling indoors
to be hand fed choice grain.

Later you puzzle over dreams
of endless blue and the steady beat of wings.

Technorati Tags: Crafty Green Poet, Domesticated, geese, migration
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Book Review: The Geese of Beaver Bog by Bernd Heinrich

On April 22, 2007, I noticed a pair of nesting geese on the beaver ponds across the road. I was disappointed that they choose to nest here because I had been told they were aggressive and would make the ponds their own, chasing out other water fowl. That seemed to be confirmed when I saw that no mallards, wood ducks or mergansers nested here as they had before. I decided that I may as well take advantage of the presence of these birds and photograph their young when they hatched. These photos in this review were taken at 10x zoom.

I saw the three goslings soon after they hatched (but was never able to photograph them), but only for a day or two. The family quickly disappeared. I was concerned that they had been eaten by fox or coyote. Then in July, Wingnut and I went to Crystal Lake State Park to swim and there was my goose family. They had integrated into life at the park and were eating and pooping very well. The goslings were nearly as big as the parents.

The park staff was asking people to not feed the geese, but were ignored. A ranger told me that they had to clean fifty pounds of geese droppings a day and it was becoming tiresome. It was impossible to walk barefoot as we usually do. But the geese were pleasant, not aggressive, and enjoyable to observe, especially since I knew that they were "mine."

I have always wondered how the family got to Crystal Lake, a mile down the road and over at least one beaver dam and a huge falls at the Barton Waterworks. Why did they leave? Was the water at the beaver pond polluted in some way? Did the food supply in the ponds suddenly become scarce? Did the goslings walk or were they carried?

Heinrich wrote the amazingly personal and engaging book, The Geese of Beaver Bog, about his observations of a group of geese from 1997 - 2003. Heinrich is a professor of biology at the University of Vermont. I have read his book Mind of the Raven: Investigations and Adventures with Wolf-Birds (after observing ravens rolling in fresh snow) and have heard him talk about bees and other topics on Vermont Public Radio and National Public Radio.

This book is a wonderful resource for me. Heinrich's experiences with his geese and beaver pond are remarkably similar to mine. We are both in Vermont, so the plants and animals are the same, and the bird populations are similar. Reading this book was like sharing experiences with a friend who doesn't only know the pond, but understands the excitement and sadness that I see here. He would feel as badly as I did when a crow stole a young redwing blackbird. Or when I heard the killing of a deer one night. He would chuckle at the scene of the coyote meeting a beaver face to face on the ice.

Canadian geese are precocial: they are able to be independent after hatching. The goslings are not fed by the parents. They mimic the parent's behavior and quickly learn what wisdom they need to continue surviving. And the parents do take the goslings to other ponds and lakes after hatching. The beaver pond, with its mink, weasels, foxes and coyotes, is not safe for the youngsters. Heinrich's geese walked two miles through cow pastures to a new pond. Mine walked through the woods where there were many dangers from predators that could not be easily seen by the parents.

Geese will try to return to nest where they are born. So I will most likely be seeing geese here for some years to come. Geese pairs do not necessarily mate for life. They tend to be monogamous but life interferes with our plans: mates are killed, or are chased away. I learned about different groups of geese in North America ("races") and about their migration.

We tend to categorize animals as cute, smart, companions, pests, killers, unimportant — there is no end to how we judge which animals are worthy of living. But once we understand their complex behaviors and how they interact, we begin to identify with them and judge them worthy of living on earth with us. We are now concerned about the survival of mountain gorillas, wolves and other animals because of books and movies that personalize their lives. The Geese of Beaver Bog personalized the natural lives of geese for me. It demystified their behaviors, asked questions that I would like answered, and removed the "pest" stigma from them.

I believed geese were nuisances but now that I know them better, I will protect their right to survive in the beaver ponds. I won't be hoping that they never return. I will be re-reading this book in the spring so that I am prepared to better observe, and enjoy, the behaviors of the geese.

All of these photos will open, full-size, in a new window when clicked.

Technorati Tags: Canadian geese, Branta canadensis, Bernd Heinrich, The Geese of Beaver Bog

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