Goose Eggs

While I was helping with a cleanup at a wetland on Saturday, I didn't take much notice of the pair of Canada geese in the remnant pond where I was working to pick up trash.

I heard but didn't really pay attention when the geese honked at some of the other cleanup volunteers.

A little while later, one of those volunteers told me why they had honked: the geese had a nest at the end of the pond, and the nest had five eggs in it. 

I've never seen a Canada goose nest before, so I waited until the parent geese had paddled a bit farther into the pond and went as close as I thought wise to figure out where the nest was. I thought it might be right down by the shore line, but after looking around, I finally realized it was the giant pile of dried grass built up above the shore, and the eggs were up at the top:

I guess the geese don't want the eggs to have the possibility of getting wet, and when a parent is sitting on the eggs, it's probably a good idea to have a good view of possible predators, too. 

Here's a somewhat higher resolution version of the egg part of the photo:

This pond is one of the last parts of the original wetland complex destroyed by what is now the northwestern corner of Saint Paul and the eastern edge of Minneapolis. 

I know many people consider Canada geese to be pests, but like I say about native plants that grow a bit too rambunctiously for gardeners' comfort, they were here before you were.