Tags

, , ,

Yesterday, near the beginning of Wildlife Drive at the Edwin B Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, I saw Canada Geese and Snowy Egrets sharing a small area of the pond. I stopped for a few minutes to take pictures of the egrets.

Suddenly a cacophony of honking and water splashing rose up. I turned my camera in the geese direction and shot the following photos. What happened was that a gander was trying to invade the turf of another who had a female goose by his side. If you don’t like violence, don’t look at the following shots.

He accelerated!

Male Canada Goose charging his rival!

Two ganders fighting while female looked on.

Two ganders fighting while female looked on.

Male defender bent his neck backward to stab his attacker.

Male defender bent his neck backward to stab his attacker.

Wrestling and churning water.

At this point attacker retreated.

Hard bumping.

Hard bumping!

Turning around to chase attacker.

Turning around to chase attacker.

Go away, you @#%!*!

Go away, you @#%!*!

Shoo!

Shoo!

Go away! Go!

Go away! Go!

When calm returned, he escorted her out of the area.

Uou come with me now, you hear?

Honey, you come with me now, you hear?

Meanwhile the other gander put up some face-saving moves.

Showing off his pecs!

Showing off his pecs: I’ll get her next time!

Then he had to cool off his hot face.

Dipping his face to cool off.

Dipping his face to cool off.

What do you know? I almost got her.

What do you know? I almost got her, almost!