Canada geese fight with osprey over South Okanagan nest

Once in awhile, a pair of Canada geese will take over an osprey nest in the spring to have their goslings and will still be there when the osprey returns from its winter migration, which creates conflict.

South Okanagan resident Leanne Cleaveley observed the phenomenon for the first time recently in an osprey nest on a platform that she had been watching for several years.

“It was pretty involved, I’ve never seen anything like it,” she said.

“The osprey would sit in a nearby tree and rest up, then take a roughly five-minute run at the geese, dive bombing them. It was quite loud. I didn’t see any contact but the osprey had talons out whenever it got close.”

Ospreys are raptors that build big, bulky nests on the tops of trees, power poles and constructed platforms which they return to every spring for breeding.

The Canada geese are waterfowl known to be aggressive and territorial.

Thompson Rivers University biology professor Stephen Joly said while it isn’t unusual for geese to use a platform, they typically nest on the ground near water.

When a nesting pair of geese do choose to use an osprey nest there can be a bit of an overlap between incubating geese and returning osprey which may result in conflict for a brief time.  

“If a pair of geese have claimed an osprey nest from the previous year, they are usually well into incubation by the time the osprey return to our area and start to reclaim territory and breed,” Joly said in an email.

“Also, goslings are precocial and will follow the parents away from the nest within 24 hours of hatching. This leaves the nest vacant for the osprey pair.

“This does mean that the goslings have to make a leap from the platform. I don’t know what the mortality rate is for that sort of jump but goslings are lightweight and bounce.”

Typically, the geese are finished with the nest by the time the ospreys are serious about nesting.

When conflicts happen, the osprey may attempt to drive the geese away but the geese are aggressive and often overwhelm them, like what Cleaveley observed.

“The mama goose was in the nest initially and then the father flew up from the river to be with her and fight, they were pretty wound up,” she said.

BC Hydro and FortisBC has installed nesting platforms across the province for the osprey to use to deter them from nesting on power poles which can cause fires and outages. 

BC Hydro can’t kick geese out of the nests as they are a federally protected species while osprey are provincially protected.