What's Good for the Goose is Good for the Gander

There is a wide isthmus jutting into the pond behind my house. In the center of this isthmus a goose made a nest. I've been checking on her nearly every day with my binoculars. Well, I assume it's a goose. It could be a gander. I'm unfamiliar with the male and female sex characteristics of geese. I can tell you the gender of an iguana. (The key is the size of the femoral pores on the underside of the legs.) But I have no idea what gender my feathered visitor is. Perhaps it's a male, or the pair is splitting the time spent on the nest. I often see another goose/gander floating around on the pond, ducking between cattails, so that's probably the spouse of the one on the nest.
Yes, I believe that geese can get married. The instruction booklet that came with my sea monkeys packet explained how the little guys get married and then baby sea monkeys "appear" in the tank. If a brine shrimp is capable of a lifetime commitment, then a goose probably is.
I'm expectantly waiting for the appearance of the goslings. Maybe if I'm lucky, I'll be able to see a gosling actually poking through the egg shell with my binoculars.
Last week I saw two teenage girls walk out onto the isthmus. I don't think they could see the nest. The goose was paddling in the middle of the pond, and the nest was obscured from view by tall grasses. I was really nervous. What if they stepped on the eggs? I wished I had a bullhorn so I could have bellowed, "Please step away from the nest. I repeat, step away from the nest."
But then the goose half-rose from the water, beating the surface with her wings as she flapped towards the girls. She hopped up onto the shore, and charged them, honking at full force. They stepped back from the nest and ran back to the walking path. The goose is a formidable protector of her eggs.