When geese attack

Back at the big estate and we were finally finishing up the wetland delineation on this gigantic property. Yesterday we had hung flags along a stream and right where I wanted to put a flag was a Canada goose and her nest. At first I thought she was dead since she had her neck lying on the ground...like she was trying to be as flat as possible. Nope she was just hiding from me. My co-worker Heidi provided cover while I placed a flag like 10 feet from her nest. She never moved and all was good. Today we decided to move the flags far away from the stream. Heidi got one side of the stream to do and I got the other..the goose side. Heidi was far far ahead of me since I had all these side tributaries to deal with. I should have known it was a bad sign when I fell into a groundhog hole right at the start of my task. The area was covered in knee high grass and there were hidden holes everywhere. But my ankles and I survived that. Then I saw the male goose fly in just when I was getting close to the nest. I should have known it would be trouble and sure enough it was. He was hissing, tongue sticking it, manically flapping, and then attempting to attack from the air. She was standing up, hissing, and flailing about too. I was screaming like the girl I am and attempting to ward off the attackers with my long soil auger. Nothing was going to stop them. But I got my flag and retreated. But I had another flag maybe 20 feet away and attack part 2 commenced. More screaming and flailing about but I got that flag too. Here's a pic of the happy couple. She's on land sitting on the nest and he's in the water making sure I don't come back.

Now you are all probably wondering..Canada goose?? Isn't it Canadian goose? Nope sorry. According to the birders the common name is Canada goose. I think the common name should be the most commonly used name. Apparently not. And why is it American crow but not America crow if you follow that logic. No idea. Just acknowledge and move on. And FYI, there's no such thing as a sea gull. It's just gull. Once I said sea gull to the birdman at work and he goes "If it was by the bay, would it be a bagel?" yuck yuck yuck. And lastly, your pigeon is really rock pigeon. It used to be just rock dove but I guess the most recent change has been to rock pigeon. I would have loved to be at that important conference...I'm just sure the love of my life would have been passionatetly arguing for the name rock dove. They're like the John Cougar Mellencamp of birds. Or is it now John Cougar or John Mellencamp??? Can I get a John Mellencamp Cougar? So I make sure to use the names Canadian geese, sea gull, and pigeon as much as possible to the birdman. And each time he just sighs and shakes his head.