Nesting in all the Wrong Places

The winter farmers market is in what used to be a big department store in a mall. The mall is still sort of functioning. The department store is not. Its an interesting repurposing but these days there likely isn’t a lot of demand for big retail space. So we buy vegetables where we used to buy clothes.

Most of the area is concrete but there have a couple of small landscaped areas on the sides as you go towards the entrance. Today, I noticed a goose sitting next to the wall and, a little further on, another goose in the landscaped area who was sitting on a nest.

Was kind of shocked the male didn’t come after everyone because they do get a little nasty and territorial around a nest. I know there are many people who don’t like the Canadian Geese because they can be nasty and they do poop everywhere. I’m more sympathetic. I mean we intrude into their territories and clear land for development and then build back wonderful retaining ponds surrounded by grass. Can you blame them for moving back in?

Reminds me of the second greatest line from Jurassic Park “Life Finds a Way”. The call to further the species is strong so how can you blame the geese for just trying to propagate their species. I do wonder about these two though because I’m not even sure where the nearest water source is. I suppose the spot might have looked nice and secluded during the week which is probably when they built the nest not expecting it to turn into a high traffic area on Saturday morning.

Urban geese find a way but they are surrounded by concrete and traffic and traffic doesn’t mix well with baby geese. I’m not sure how they found this spot – walking around the mall checking things out I guess. Or how they plan to move the babies when they hatch. Then again, nature isn’t always kind and there is survival of the fittest and these two might not be very fit (or smart) if this was the best nest site they could find.

Guess we’ll see how things go over the next couple of weeks. It is illegal to tamper or move a nest without permission although that may not necessarily stop someone from doing so. I’m not sure how you go about getting permission (I’m also not sure you actually can) but they weren’t really bothering anyone today so why not let them be.

The real problems are going to come when people get too close – which is bound to happen. Most likely some young child not listening to their parents running up to see the goose which would trigger a response from the male. I’ve seen places put up signs warning people to steer clear of the geese and it wouldn’t shock me if one showed up next week.

Hope at least a couple of the young survive but it really seems like a sub optimal place to build a nest.

Oh, and in case you were curious, the best line in Jurassic Park is “Yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.”