NESTING CANADA GEESE IN HONEY LAKE VALLEY, CALIFORNIA 



After the eggs have hatched, the goose usually broods her young 

 in the nest for twelve to twenty-four hours. The young are then led 

 to open water, usually a lake or one of the deep canals, where the family 

 remains until the young are able to fly. Hartson Reservoir (Pig. 2) 

 is one of the favorite rearing areas in Honey Lake Valley, and during 

 the course of this study, the margins of Honey Lake itself were used 

 extensively. In some cases broods of geese traveled as far as four or 

 five miles over marshy areas or along water courses in order to reach 

 these large bodies of water. 



Haystacks (Fig. 5), ca- 

 nal banks (Fig. 6), muskrat 

 houses, matted masses of 

 tules (Fig. 7), and sand 

 islands were among the pre- 

 ferred nesting sites. The ex- 

 tensive use of haystacks as 

 nesting sites afforded the 

 writer an opportunity to 

 make the following unusual 

 observations : 



On April 14, 1940, the 

 writer noticed a wagon load 

 of hay which was stuck in 

 the mud and abandoned tem- 

 porarily by the owner. A 

 nest containing six eggs was 

 found on the exact top of 

 the load at a height of 12 

 feet from the ground. When 

 the nest was revisited a few 

 days later, a mallard was 

 found to be nesting on the 

 same wagon within three 

 feet of the incubating goose. 

 Both were successful in 

 hatching broods. 



On March 18, 1940, a 

 goose nest containing two 

 eggs was found on the top 

 of one end of a large hay- 

 stack, more than 18 feet from the ground. Two or more wagon loads 

 of hay were being taken from the opposite end of the stack each day. 

 As the haystack decreased in size and the nest was endangered, the 

 rancher considerately moved the nest and eggs to a safer position on the 

 stack. By April 25th, the stack had dwindled to only a small pile and 

 the nest was less than six feet from the ground. The farmer was 

 obliged to move the nest to save the eggs from destruction each time 

 he took hay from the stack. A last visit to the nest revealed that the 

 goose hatched two goslings in spite of the fact that she had been dis- 

 urbed each day during the incubation period. The incubation period, 

 in this case, was approximately 33 days. 



Fig. 6. 



Goose nest on canal bank. Canal in 

 foreground, irrigated meadow in back- 

 ground. Photograph by James Moffitt. 



2 — 18211 



