Boldness

Or you could make your nest right out in the open, just a few feet from the path around the West Pond at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge. This Canada Goose’s partner sits on the path hissing up a storm at anybody with the temerity to walk by. Branta canadensis goslings are precocial like ducklings; exposed nests like these are becoming more common as the Canadas become quasi-domesticated, or at least far too habituated to humans. Note that it’s lined with goosedown. Here’s another, further from the path and with a modicum of grasses around for cover:This is a two-fer, since that’s an occupied nest box. Tree Swallows (Tachycineta bicolor) have arrived; you can barely see one sticking out of the hole in the box. The metal structure around the box’s support is to keep out warm-blooded, night-raiding, egg-loving predators like rats, raccoons, etc.