There’s a building boom out here in the country! We have new families moving in daily and new homes are being started all over.

This happens every spring – and no, I’m not speaking about humans! I’m taking about the birds!

With the melting of the ice and the arrival of open water, we always welcome our largest and most aggressive new neighbors… Canadian geese.

We watch the massive flocks fly over heading north, but every year a few couples decide to take advantage of the nest boxes we placed in our ponds and filled with hay.

They choose the pond and the nest box they like best and set about to fill that nest with eggs.

And then they claim their territory!

My daily walks have taken on a new aspect as I carefully walk by the ponds, watching for the daddy geese who tend to stand guard.

I’ve learned to start clapping as I approach the ponds to give them fair warning – I’ve heard that a goose bite is something you don’t soon forget! I’ve also learned to watch where I step…if you know what I mean…especially as time goes on.

Every year we try to get a glimpse of the goslings after they hatch, but they are elusive.

Then as soon as they little ones are big enough, they disappear from our pond altogether. One year we watched them walk across the pasture and down the road, just like in the children’s classic “Make Way for Ducklings”.

Where they go, we’ve yet to discover.

But for a few weeks every spring we share our ponds with these impressive water fowl in exchange for a front row  seat for the miracle of  new birth.

It’s a pretty fair exchange I’d say!