Ray Collier Country Diary- Geese

Geese - 13th october 2008

The wild geese around Inverness such as the greylag and pink-footed geese are commonly seen in large flocks, called skeins, flighting to and from their feeding and roosting grounds. Skeins at this time of the year tend to fly low but in late Autumn some of them are very high with some descending whilst others flew further south. These could well have been birds that had flown direct from their breeding grounds in Iceland in one non stop flight, such is their strength. Other geese are much smaller and the brent goose is a good example as it is only the size of a mallard drake although the neck is longer. These geese are plump with rather short black legs and small black beaks. The head, neck and upperparts are dark looking, black from a distance, and contrasting with the white under tail feathers. The underparts are either mottled grey or brown. The adults have a white collar of feathers on the sides of the neck that is absent in young birds. They are a bird of the sea coast and estuaries where their favourite food is eel-grass but they will eat saltmarsh plants such as glasswort, sea aster and grasses.
Historically the brent goose in the Highlands poses a mystery as at one time it was reputed to be by far the commonest goose. Old records for Sutherland and Ross and Cromarty indicate that they outnumbered other geese by 100 to 1. There are old records with, unfortunately, no date of up to 4,000 being seen in the Cromarty Firth whereas these days a flock of over ten birds, anywhere in the Highlands, would be noteworthy. It is not as if large numbers no longer come to Britain as each winter England and Ireland support over 130,000 that represents nearly half of the world population. Why there are so few in the Highlands these days may be tied in with the food as perhaps there has been a dramatic change in the amount of eel-grass available.
The reason for the increase in the south is put down to legislation against shooting, and their move onto agricultural land. There are still some causes for concern such as habitat loss, disturbance and the lobby that seeks to put the goose back on the quarry list so they can be shot for sport.
The brent goose is one of the more remarkable of the geese as it breeds further north than any other goose. The dark bellied race breeds in Siberia and in northern Russia
and they winter mainly in England and France. The pale bellied race from Canada and Greenland winters in Ireland. In these Arctic areas the weather suitable for breeding last only around 100 days so even slight variations in conditions can affect the success of gosling survival. Families migrate together and remain together until the following breeding season. Some of them can survive 28 years or more.
The best places to look for brent geese around Inverness include Nigg Bay, Tarbetness, Udale Bay, Clachnaharry and Alturlie Point. The latest Highland Bird report states that the brent goose is a "Scarce (but increasing) migrant and winter visitor" so we can put hope that the numbers will return again in the future. The photograph was taken of a bird caught for ringing along with some pink-footed geese on the east coast. The Scots names for the brent goose include ware goose, clatter goose and routhurrock. The Gaelic name is Geadha-got meaning brent goose. The main problem for the future would seem to be whether the bird is on the quarry list or not.