BRECKSVILLE, Ohio -- A Canada goose appears to have taken over a bald eagle's nest in the Cleveland Metroparks Brecksville Reservation.

The occurrence is uncommon but not necessarily rare, according to Dr. Terry Robison, Cleveland Metroparks' director of natural resources.

Cleveland Metroparks officials said they began researching the matter after being contacted by a reporter on Sunday.

Metroparks naturalist and birding expert Jennifer Brumfield said later in the day that the Brecksville eagles failed earlier in the year and left the nest. The eagle pair has since been seen perched on large dead tree limbs nearby.

"The eagle pair has been seen in the immediate area, perching on large dead limbs nearby, but no courtship or re-attempt to nest has been attempted or observed, to my knowledge," Brumfield said in a statement emailed through a spokesperson.

Since the eagles left, geese have been sighted inside the nest and have fought with other geese over it, including one fight that broke on Sunday.

There was no fight, however, between the eagles and the geese, Brumfield said.

Two eaglets were hatched in the nest last year. Ohio Department of Natural Resources spokeswoman Susie Vance it would have been "highly unlikely" that the eagles would have abandoned the nest unless it was empty and had no eaglets or eggs.

Vance said it is unusual for geese to pick an eagle's nest to inhabit because they typically nest closer to the ground and in wetlands. She said, however, that Canada geese are able to nest anywhere.

"You don't see that everyday," Vance said of the Canada goose taking over the eagle's nest.