It looked a mismatched contest between a bird and a lion but the winged warrior came out on top.

Out on Broad Bay on Otago Harbour on Thursday, a goose, who for unexplained reasons has taken up residence near the beach, decided to get into a fiery exchange with a sea lion.

Broad Bay resident Nadya Zviaguina said the goose has been in and around the Broad Bay beach for the best part of two years.

It sees at as its patch, and as the sea lion found out on Thursday, the goose does not want to share.

Ms Zviaguina said the sea lion had come on to the beach at low tide and lay there soaking up the sights. But as the tide rolled in the sea lion, it moved farther up the beach and then tried to climb up a short ramp.

But the goose took a real exception to that.

This is a goose which looks at its reflection in a pole nearby and is trying to mate with the reflection, Ms Zviaguina said.

So the goose was worried for its own existence and his nearby mate, which is actually a pole.

The goose started waving its wings and making loud hissing noises at the sea lion.

The sea lion seemed all a bit perplexed about what was going on and appeared to not be keen on the hissing.

It wandered away a few metres and then lay down on the sand.

A few hours later it headed into the water, Ms Zviaguina said.

"It's pretty unbelievable what the goose did. It was the neatest thing I have seen in Broad Bay," she said.

As of this morning, the sea lion has not returned.