One of my recent obsessions – observing the behaviour of Canada Geese – is not an overly popular one.  I have one friend who, at the mere mention of geese, will launch into expletives and his desire to annihilate the species (good luck with that).  He does not appear to be alone in this opinion as they can be pests in some areas and seem to be spreading like wildfire.  It also strikes me  that they seem to be highly intelligent, organized, and family oriented, often mating for life.  I was amazed at the migration drills I observed last fall but spring has brought even more interesting activity.   

In late March, near the bridge at the MacKenzie Marsh in Aurora, I witnessed a ritual that I had never seen before.  There were about 10-15 geese in the pond making quite a racket.  Frantic honking lead to a rather spectacular (and frightening) goose fight!  From what we could figure, two males were fighting over a nest with a female waiting placidly for the result.  In addition to this shot on the side,

I’ve included about 10 pictures of this fight in the set below… so perhaps there are some geese mating ritual experts who can tell me what was going on.

Now it’s May and the babies have been hatching.  It’s so much fun to see the little goslings.  Of course, I’ve been hissed at by more than one protective father when I’ve tried to take their pictures…

And, yes, I’m getting a little tired of navigating amongst the goose droppings.