Strange Occurrences

The other day while walking towards one of the Ferruginous Hawk nests we have been monitoring, I saw a small yellow thing pop out and scurry away along the ground. It took a moment to register what I was looking at. This yellow object escaping into the grass was a fuzzy, peeping gosling. It didn't make much sense. Had this little goose just escaped shocking narrow miss from being a hawk breakfast?

I went ahead and peered into the hawk's nest only to find that there too was another downy gosling and three goose eggs. The mother hawk circled above me, maternally protecting what she viewed to be her nest. After I got back into my truck, the hawk promptly re-settled herself upon her nest and returned to her very confused home-life. I can only imagine her attempts at feeding her supposed young.

It reminded me of this truly beautiful short film I had seen: The Owl that Married a Goose