Spring Wonder

I went by the Capital Circle pond on Sunday and sat down on a brick wall at the south end of the pond and fed the male.  Then I broke up some bread and walked up the sidewalk to the nest site.  The female got up and showed me her eggs as usual and I dumped the pieces of bread in her nest as I knew she would not let me hand feed her.  After leaving and looking back she was happily eating the bread before getting back on the nest.

I did not pass by the pond on Monday or Tuesday.  Today I did go by there and much to my dismay I saw the goose and gander on the east side of the pond (the nest is on the west side).  When they saw me they swam toward me rather slowly.  And as they got nearer I could see they had some babies with them.  As they got closer I counted seven babies so all the eggs hatched except one.  I fed the adults but the babies did not eat anything yet.

So today the babies are either one or two days old.  This is the first clutch I have seen this year. I checked the nest and there was one undamaged egg left in the nest.

The first time I saw seven of those eight eggs was on March 16th so I would guess she laid one egg per day and thus started the first one on March 9th.  From the time the first egg was laid until they started hatching out must have been 22 days in March and 11 days in April for a total of 33 days incubation.  Such a wonder.

Nanci Hamilton-Hoffman
Retired Teacher, Florida, USA