Mother goose lays eggs, awaits goslings at Seymour's Boatyard

The crew at Seymour’s Boatyard is expecting six goslings any day now, as mother and father goose anxiously await their arrival on the windy Northport pier.

A couple of weeks ago, as staff were setting up for the season, they spotted something unusual on the docks. “We were outside doing some painting, and we noticed there was an egg in the planter but it was unattended,” said Seymour’s office manager, Lisa. “Then a couple of days later, we noticed there was a second one.”

When a female goose is ready to become a mother, she will begin building her nest, lining it with down plucked from her own body. She’ll lay one egg each day or so, leaving it in the nest while she forages for food, and then returns to lay her next egg. Once all eggs are laid, she’ll faithfully sit in the nest to incubate them for about 28 days.

The Seymour’s crew wasn’t sure how to handle having two geese and their eggs on the pier, where people walk by throughout the day. When they called a wildlife specialist for advice, they were told that moving the nest isn’t always successful and if the parent geese aren’t being aggressive, it’s best to just leave them be.

“So the pair would come in the morning and then they would disappear in the afternoon. And each time they would come and leave, there would be another egg,” Lisa explained. In total, mama goose has laid six eggs and “started sitting” just last week. Although they were initially told that the goslings would arrive around Mother’s Day, the parents-to-be are most likely looking at a few more weeks of incubation.

While the female goose sits and waits, the male will stay close to keep watch, always leaving enough distance so that he doesn’t give away the nest’s location to potential predators.

Geese typically choose their mates at the age of three and they’ll stay monogamous for life, raising a new family together every year. Each spring, they’ll start the nesting process all over again. And being that geese have strong instincts to return to their area of birth in order to mate and nest each year, Seymour’s may see another round of goslings join the community every May. In the meantime, we’ll be waiting to see those cute yellow babies join the world, and take their first dips in Northport Harbor.