Why Are the Geese Fighting? Big News

We've had two pair of Canada geese living at the pond for at least a month now. They squabble a bit, but for the most part have been co-existing. Today while the one pair was swimming, the other pair came back from wherever they'd been, and when they landed a huge fight broke out.



Here's a closer view. They were pretty far from me so I couldn't get much detail. I'm assuming it was the two males fighting.



And here's why -- we have goslings! You can barely see them in between the two proud parents here.



We saw them for the first time this morning. We had no idea they were expecting! Supposedly the female goose incubates her 5-7 eggs for a solid month, rarely leaving them and guarded by the male. We saw none of that; she's been visible frequently the whole time. Then all of a sudden we have five adorable, roly-poly, fuzzy yellow-and-gray babies. According to the web, the babies lose their yellow within the first week, so these babies are brand new.

We'll work on getting better pictures. For the moment, we're giving them their space.