Geese nesting at Calgary City Hall not unusual, says goose expert

A family of Canadian geese nesting near the steps of Calgary City Hall had many people talking Friday but it might not be all that unusual, according to a local goose expert.

Turns out, some geese have become habituated to the urban environment and so nesting downtown actually makes sense to them.

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"From their perspective, the city environment is just as similar as a wild environment for a wild goose living up in the north," said Sid Andrews, an interpretation coordinator with the Inglewood Bird Sanctuary. "You can see they adapt quite well to city steps, apartment balconies, a puddle in the middle of a traffic circle, anything like that. From a goose's point of view, because remember they can fly, the river whether it's the Bow or the Elbow the river's not far away."

Andrews says people can tell the difference between wild geese and urban geese by how their react to people.

Wild geese tend to get very nervous around humanswhile urban geese are less so.