While Deb and I were walking in Prospect park this morning, we came upon a gaggle of geese that themselves stumbled upon an irate swan defending his nest.

The geese seemed to be on the move.  There were mostly goslings in the group with a few adults.  My guess is that they had gone for a walk to forage and were heading back to the lake.  Unfortunately, they tried to enter the lake a few feet from where a pair of nesting swans were protecting their nest.  Some of the other passers by said that they had seen cygnets in the nest earlier, but when we were there one swan was completely covering the nest and the other was on the shore posturing. 

The geese seemed determined to get back to the lake until the swan had enough and started charging.  What followed was almost comical.  The goslings scattered while the adults lagged behind to distract the swan.  Some of the goslings walked right up to me and seemed determined to follow me to safety.  I didn’t know where to lead them, but I was able to get a few good up close pictures with my cell phone.

I also got some video of the swan charging around.  In the very back of the video there is a white spot.  It can’t be seen clearly, but that is the other swan sitting on the nest.

The Gaggle vs The Swan

Link: Photo set on Flickr