Our Canada Geese Return!

What a surprise, when I heard honking overhead this morning - especially since I had been wondering lately if we might be lucky enough to play host to our pair of Canada geese again this year.

Hubby was outside feeding the horses and when he returned to the house, he confirmed that two Canada geese had landed near our pond.

Could it be?  Were these OUR Canada geese, the very same pair that had built a nest and spent significant time on our property last year?

We had been wondering lately .... would they return?

About an hour had passed and again, I heard honking overhead, so I went to the front of the house, and lo and behold, they had moved from the pond to our front pasture, west of our chicken coop.

This was almost a sure sign that this pair was indeed "our" geese, since we had often fed them with chicken scratch at this very location west of our house last year.

We currently don't have any scratch feed, but we do have bird seed, so hubby took a scoop and scattered it for the two geese.  They were hesitant to come too close to him, but once he left, they commenced pecking at the bird seed.

The guineas have been having absolute fits all day.  They are not happy to see these big birds re-invade their turf.  Several of the guineas have been fluffing up their wings and charging the geese.  Last year, the geese put our guineas in their place right quick, pulling out quite a few feathers in the process.  This year, the two geese (so far!) have been pretty complacent, just watching the guineas and their defensive antics.  It is almost as if the geese are yawning and saying "really? is that all you got?"

It will be fun and exciting to see what our pair of geese do this year -- how long will they stay?  will they build a nest by the pond again?  will the eggs outlast our resident coyote population this time?

Only time will tell.

They've been hanging out near the chicken coop in our south and west pastures today. It looks like they might stay awhile.