Two More Goose Nests

I know they are supposely classed as grey geese, but I still think of them as white geese so that is what they will remain in this blog.

Walking back toward Micklethwaite Wharf I spotted another goose in the grass and wondered if she was sitting on eggs.  In fact I suspect she was preparing a nest ready for laying.  The white geese don't seem to have elaborate nesting, just a hollow formed in the grass by their body.  While I watched this goose, we will call her WG2 for now, started plucking down from her underbelly and lining the nest. 

She is rather an elegant goose with a beigy, almost pink head and neck that shows somewhere in her line someone mated with a greylag goose.

Satisfied for now, she came over for some food, still with a bit of down on her beak.

Then to the third - under the hawthorn tree at Greenhill a white goose and her mate appeared to be doing the same thing, hollowing out a nest and lining it with down from her underbelly.  For now I have dubbed her WG3 for ease.  I'm not sure how safe this nest will be as a lot of dog owners let their dogs run free around that area.  One guy I asked to keep his dogs on leads assured me the dogs wouldn't harm them - tell that to the geese I say.  Maybe tomorrow there will be eggs in both.