Brent Goose

Exe River Estuary, South Devon, UK

A small, common goose spend winter  temperate latitudes in western Europe and North America. The severe tundra weather is only mild enough for nesting  for around two months and by mid September they are flying South with flocks arriving in UK in early October. The photograph was taken at the Exe River Estuary, Devon UK, which is a favourite wintering ground.

Habitat

Brent geese spend winter on salt marshes and river estuaries. During the breeding season it inhabits  low-lying, wet coastal tundra.

Feeding

 They graze mainly on eelgrass and algae. Decreased availability of eel grass caused by disease has threatened their numbers in the past but they have increased again since the 1990's and there is now an estimated world population of around 500,000.

Breeding

The UK sub-species migrates in spring to Russian and Siberia. where they nest a long way from the coast on open, boggy tundra. They build a bowl-shaped nest lined with grass and down on elevated ground often near fresh water.

Wildfile Specials

• Brant geese were thought to hatch from barnacle shells. This myth was believed until the end of the 18th century and even more recently in Ireland.
• Because of the above, Catholics could eat this bird on a Friday because it counted as fish. Hence the Irish attachment to the myth.