Bird Sightings : Hebrides : Barnacle Geese

Barnacle Geese

Branta leucopsis

Gaelic: Cathan

Photograph © John Dempsey
North Uist - Outer Hebrides (Western Isles)
March 2007

Our Barnacle Geese photographs :

Barnacle Geese flock	Barnacle Geese flight	Barnacle Geese flight

• Barnacle Goose
• AKA: Rood Goose, Barny, Grollog
• Branta leucopsis
• UK AMBER LIST 1000 feral birds breeding, Winter visitors 67,000, (Oct - Mar) RSPB
• Breeds: Nests: high cliffs North Atlantic Arctic Islands: East Greenland, Spitsbergen, Northern Russia
• Winters: South of breeding area to South Europe
• Habitat: Wetland meadows, marsh, rivers (estuaries on migration)
• Diet: shoots, leaves
• Medium-sized, sociable goose. Creamy-white face. Black head, neck & breast. White belly. Blue-grey barred back. Wings and its back silver-grey with black-and-white bars. Black tail.
• Flight: V-shaped white rump patch & silver-grey underwing visible. Flies in packs & long lines, with barking, yapping chorus
• Max recorded age 26yrs 8mths, typical lifespan 12yrs
• Listen to a barnacle goose (RSPB site)

 

In the Arctic where Barnacle Geese breed Polar Bears are a problem, so the birds nest high on cliffs. When the 3 day old goslings are hungry they jump off the cliffs. Many of them die in this process. The surviving goslings then have a half mile hike to their feeding areas, stalked by Arctic foxes along the way.

 

Main Barnacle Goose Populations
Breeding	Wintering	Population
Eastern Greenland	Hebrides	40,000
Svalbard Archipelago (Between Norway & North Pole)	Solway Firth	24,000
Novaya Zemlya Archipelago (North of Russia)	Netherlands	130,000
Baltic Sea islands (Estonia, Finland, Denmark, and Sweden)	Netherlands	8,000
	(Source WIKI)

 

Other local bird photographs

John's Blog including his two stays in the Uists

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