Brent goose

 

The Brent goose (Branta bernicla) is a winter visitor to the British Isles from the Arctic tundra. There are two distinct varieties of Brent goose – dark-bellied geese visit the south-east coasts from Russia while pale-bellied geese are seen in north-east England having arrived from Spitzbergen and Franz Josef Land. Pale-bellied geese from Greenland pass the winter on the coasts of Ireland.

The Brent goose is black and grey with a noticeable white stern. Adult birds have black heads, necks and breasts with a small white patch on the neck. The back is dark grey-brown. The bill is short and the head narrow. The sexes are alike.

The Brent goose is only slightly larger than the mallard duck, at 22-24 inches (55-60 cm).

Brent geese fly in long wavering lines, usually low above the water or ground. When feeding at sea, where they spend most of their time, they bob like ducks with their white sterns in the air.

In the tundra, they begin nesting before the ice and snow have melted. They lay 3 to 5 eggs which hatch in 3 ½ weeks, and within three months the young birds must be ready to fly south.

Brent geese were once a very common sight in British waters but nearly died out as visitors in the 1930s. One reason for this decline was that disease struck their main winter food plant, the eel-grass that grows on tidal flats and in estuaries around the North Sea. Numbers have recovered in more recent years, thanks to strict protection and recovery of the eel-grass. However, Brent geese will also raid winter cereals to supplement their diet.

© John Welford