The Mystery of the Missing Eggs And A Few Facts About Geese

Franklin and I are in Oregon now,  staying on a houseboat in the Willamette River in Portland. We've stayed here off and on for the past three or four years.

Since we moved in I've been watching a mother goose sitting on her nest of eggs.  The nest is about 30 feet from my front door, on a floating island about six feet across.  I can even see it from my desk as I type this. It is the round thing located behind those huge metal pilings.

Here's a photo of the floating island, with mother goose admiring her eggs in her nest. That is a a metal fish sculpture behind her. 

First a few facts. They are called Canada geese, not Canadian geese. Not sure why exactly. I assume it has something to do with immigration issues. Anyway, they are big waterbirds, larger than a duck and smaller than a swan. There are about a dozen of them around our houseboat community. I can't tell them apart, their markings are all more or less the same, black, white and tan. Geese mate for life and seem to mostly be in couples.

This particular goose has been sitting on her nest pretty much 24/7 until a day or two ago.
Then one egg hatched. I didn't actually see it happened but must have only missed it by an hour at most. Next time I looked out the window I saw the broken shell and this tiny gossling. Yes, by the time I saw him, he was already swimming. Isn't nature amazing?

Mama on her nest, and baby 

At the same time, the father goose turned up. He's probably been hanging around in the neighborhood but I can't tell one from another. Anyway, from the time this first egg hatched the three have been inseparable.

In this photo, we have mama, papa, five eggs, and a random duck, presumably a friend of the family. The gosling is in the water learning to swim. 

I might mention that she isn't the only mother goose in the neighborhood. Here is another one nesting in a planter in front of another houseboat. And there is another one in a planter on someone's back porch. I haven't seen that one close up. but assume she looks the same as this.

Anyway, this is when things started to get mysterious. Yesterday morning mom, dad, and the baby were swimming for an hour or two nearby, possibly teaching the gosling the finer points of swimming. What this means is that mom is no longer sitting on her nest, keeping the eggs warm. It means she deserted her other five eggs.

The geese swam around for a day, then in the afternoon they just left. They just left? One gosling was enough for them apparently, their family is complete, and they decided they didn't want or need the others.

Furthermore, overnight one egg complete disappeared. How can a large egg disappear? The nest is on a floating island. I don't even know if it can support human weight and anyway, the eggs would not be good to eat at this point.  Maybe a raccoon or mink swam up and grabbed it. But if they did why would they stop at one?

I guess the answer is: they wouldn't. Because today three more eggs are missing. Now there is only one egg left.  Presumably, someone will be back for that one tonight. Update: yup, the last egg is gone.

Another mystery is where did the geese go? I have been told that these geese do not migrate to Canada. So I'm going with the party downstream theory.

We still have the ducks, though. 

In general, I am not crazy about Canada geese. Too much noise and too much poop everywhere. But I have to say I miss these geese. I was expecting to watch the gosling grow, maybe learn to fly (him, not me) and maybe develop a relationship with him. But nature is unpredictable, I guess.

Update: three days later the floating dock is planted with petunias. It is as though this little wildlife drama never happened.