When I came home late on Good Friday, I had already had several long days of satisfactory photography. I had spent the entire afternoon at Carolyn Holmberg Preserve and at Twin Lakes, while the previous day I was shooting at Sawhill Ponds.

At Twin Lakes I got my best shot yet of one of the Great Horned Owlets that I had been watching for weeks.

A Great Horned Owlet

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At Sawhill Ponds I had been watching a pair of Ospreys on their nest. One flew off to pick up some more nesting material.

An Osprey Carrying a Stick

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This is the season for many species of birds besides raptors to be born in Boulder. And I have been even more diligently watching another drama unfold even closer to home.

Almost every day for the previous three weeks I have been waiting for a Canada Goose to give birth. She chose the small wooden raft on Tantra Lake in view of my apartment to lay her eggs.

As I watched her patiently keeping her eggs warm night and day, in weather hot and cold, and in snow, wind, and gusts of rain, my sympathy with the hardships of her motherhood greatly increased. This shot on March 29 came after the first of three snowstorms during the incubation of her eggs.

Sitting Out the Snow

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Not until March 31 did I see the eggs. After that, I often stuck around long enough to see her to get up and rearrange them. What a thrill!

She Apparently Laid Five Eggs

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Mallards often joined mama goose on the little raft. They ignored each other.

A Pair of Mallards Visit

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On April 4 another duck that I had never seen before joined her there. A few minutes later this duck was swimming back in the lake.

A Wood Duck Visits Tantra Lake

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For a long time I thought that the Canada Goose was a single mother. In fact, her mate hung around the lake, but didn’t visit her until April 10.

On that afternoon the weather was warm, so she went off briefly with her mate, leaving the nest unattended for the first time.

Reunited with Her Mate

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Four days later he visited her again. And again she returned to the nest about half an hour later.

Returning to the Nest

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Then, more than a week passed with little action on the raft. The Canada Goose diligently kept her eggs warm.

On the morning of Good Friday I went out to see if the goslings had hatched. I was growing concerned because the eggs were supposed to be hatched already, and that morning she seemed to be getting sloppy in protecting them from the cold.

Getting Sloppy?

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I was even more concerned because of the tragic failure here of this or another Canada Goose two years ago. I wrote about that tragedy then.

When I returned to Tantra Lake on Good Friday from getting the photo of the Great Horned Owlet above, the light was fading and so was my energy. But I went to see the Canada Goose anyway. From a distance I could see that she was not on the raft. I ran there, approaching with trepidation.

My worst fears seemed to have been realized. With my new external flash and Better Beamer for distance I was devastated to see that the eggs were cracked and she was gone.

Cracked!

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In the growing darkness I didn’t see the Canada Goose. But then I looked around, and she and her mate were sitting calmly right beside me.

“You failed! You failed!” I told her repeatedly.

Then, two goslings popped out from under her wings!

The Goslings Were No More than 12 Hours Old

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I wasn’t able to see them again until yesterday evening, because I had to leave before sunrise for a scheduled photo tour of Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Reserve. But when I returned that evening, I made sure to look for them even before going into my apartment.

I couldn’t find them! Finally, after walking all the way around the lake, there they were, on the grass by the lakeshore right in front of my apartment. For the first time I saw that all five eggs had hatched.

Mama Goose and Her Five Goslings

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The goslings still stuck close together when I visited them this Easter morning.

Three Goslings

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They probably had to swim from the raft to shore just after their birth. I didn’t see that, but I was fortunate to witness them swim across the lake today.

Seven Geese All in a Row

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Now I look forward to watching the goslings continue to grow up and experience this world. This evening they are experiencing rain for the first time in their life. I know that they will grow up rapidly and, like us, soon forget the wonder of their birth.