Abandoned

[Michaelaw]

It's been three days I've visited the Canada goose nest and not a sign of Mom or Dad just a lot of dog prints in the mud around the vacant nest. I carefully removed the covering and took a shot of the eggs before covering them back up. I used a stick because I'm not sure if they do return they would take well to my scent. Three days is a long time!!!! :cry-an:

[Gem]

How big are those eggs? Maybe keep watching and if they don't come back, you can incubate them? Hopefully they do though...Nice shot =)

[Michaelaw]

How big are those eggs? Maybe keep watching and if they don't come back, you can incubate them? Hopefully they do though...Nice shot =)

I thought about incubation but then I fell back to earth and realized my life would not allow me to be a stay home mom to a flock of baby geese as much as I think I might enjoy the trip. I think dogs had a hand in this. All dogs in the wildlife refuge are supposed to be leashed but of course that rule doesn't apply to anyone I see with a dog!

[JAS_Photo]

This is all based on my knowledge of parrots but some things will still apply. Birds have poor senses of smell so merely touching the nest would not likely deter them. Generally, when a hen starts to sit a clutch she will not leave the nest except in extreme necessity. With parrots, the male feeds the female and she maybe will leave the nest for a brief period to poo. Geese maybe take turns, on the nest, I don't know for sure. If a bird has been sitting a nest the required incubation time, say 21 days and the chicks do not hatch by that time or shortly there after, she will abandon the clutch. It does not look like a full clutch in there, Michael, so some sort of dire circumstance may have caused the abandonment of the nest. Those eggs also look damaged from the picture.

Lastly, you do not want to raise the chicks, even if you could. First they will need to be fed hourly then every two hours, then four, night and day, until they start to eat on their own. The babies will identify with humans and never learn to be a 'goose' so they will become lifelong pets. You may feel bad about the eggs but really the babies are better off being raised by their parents. If nothing happened to the parents they most likely decided to start a clutch in a better location.

[casil403]

I've touched chicks and put them back in the nest when they fell out (twice)and the parents kept on feeding them.
I think Raiven's right...they most probably started a new clutch somewhere else and there might have been something wrong with the eggs. perhaps another set of geese will take over the nest shortly!