New nest of eggs
Follow Patience’s progress as Mother Goose.
It took a lot of patience, but Patience has a new nest of eggs.
The feathery star of the Journal’s goosecam has laid more eggs on a hay bale after the first batch were scattered and crushed during an April windstorm.
“I was happy to see that she laid another batch of eggs,” said Bruce Edwards, a Journal photographer who has set up the goosecam every spring for six years on a farm just southwest of Edmonton. The camera takes still photos of the scene and uploads them to edmontonjournal.com/Goosecam on the Internet every few minutes.
On April 28, the goose — named Patience by online viewers of the livestream — lost her first eggs when a windstorm, with gusts up to 90 km/h, overturned the hay bale and nest, breaking the eggs.
This time, Patience chose a different straw bale. Edwards said this particular straw bale is more stable because it has smaller, regular-sized straw bales leaning against it.
“It’s not uncommon to lay a second clutch,” said Edwards, who has been monitoring the goose for the last few weeks. He believes the goose is Patience, since she has a white patch above her eyes.
“Sometimes the chicks will die because of a predator or other things will happen,” Edwards said.
“She would not lay them if they didn’t have a chance to survive.”
People can also listen to Patience on her playful twitter account at twitter.com/ej_goosebot. The online site features reports on humidity and the weather.
“We have another opportunity to watch nature at work,” Edwards said.
“Nature is cruel at times, like when the last batch of eggs broke, but hopefully this time, all will be successful and they’ll make it to the pond.”