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The goose and the gander

By CONNIE MERTZ

This spring, we have a pair of Canada geese nesting on the outer bank of our wetlands. With digital camera in hand, my husband enticed me to capture the female on her nest. I knew not to approach too closely, for the gander is always near by defending his mate.

To say I didn’t want to challenge the gander was an understatement because I have been told how they attack humans who enter their territories. I captured this picture; the female has her head bent low, apparently trying to be inconspicuous, but her eyes still followed me.

“You aren’t close enough,” my husband teased. He took the digital camera and stepped dangerously close. At that, the female let out a danger call and immediately the gander, who was relaxing on the upper pond, flew down to his mate. Instead of going toward my husband, he came right at me even though I was standing about 20 yards from the nesting female goose. The moral of this story is: respect a pair of nesting Canada geese! They always get the last “Honk.”