From Scott Wells
Goose tries to take over Great Horned Owls nest. Momma GHO fought off the goose to protect her nest and two owlets. No harm to the owl family. Montgomery County, OH 3-19-2025
A thrilling saga! Do geese regularly predate on owl chicks?
I had never known this was a thing either. I always see the geese on the ground.
I did a little more digging and it is unusual for geese to nest in trees, it’s not rare. They either like tree cavities or existing raptor nests. Nobody seems to really like the geese doing this. This owl is very not happy, and also I can upon a few people that tried to set up nests for more in danger birds like osprey, only to have some overly plentiful goose come and steal the spot.
Found another little photo series on Flickr showing another great views of a CG/GHO fight. Here’s the best one for anyone that doesnt want to follow the link.
It doesn’t sound like they will eat the chicks, just “evict” them.
My family used to have Canada Geese as pets when I was a kid. (Long story)
Geese are jerks, mostly.
It’s like they got personality swapped with some other animal. A goose doesn’t look like it should be mean and scary.
Like an orangutan is big and muscular and has teeth and such, but is generally peaceful. The goose just looks like a long duck, but its personality is always cranked up to 11.
