Come and take a gander at the geese

Every year, hundreds of thousands of wintering geese arrive in Scotland as part of their annual migratory journey from Iceland, Greenland and Norway.

 

Imagine rising early on a crisp winter morning, wrapped up warmly you set your gaze on the brilliant red sunrise, seconds later it is almost completely shadowed by a blizzard of wings as an enormous flock of geese, so big they are almost impossible to count, take to the air, the sheer volume of their collective call making their departure impossible to miss...

 

The sight and sound of these birds taking to the skies is one of the country’s most exciting winter wildlife spectacles, and you don’t even need to go a million miles from the hustle and bustle to see it.

 

With flocks of up to 80,000 geese - incredibly that's a quarter of the world's population, all in one Scottish reserve - Loch of Strathbeg RSPB in Aberdeenshire is a perfect location to see the goose migration in all its glory. Every morning as dawn breaks huge numbers of pink footed geese disperse from the loch. Throughout the winter they are joined by growing numbers of swans and ducks, making it a spectacular location to enjoy waterfowl. It’s not only birds which can be seen here either; given the stunning coastal location, keep a look out for common and grey seals, both of which can be spotted off the reserve.

 

Other key sites for geese spotting are Vane Farm RSPB (30 mins from Edinburgh, Kinross-shire), Loch Gruinart RSPB ( Islay), Mersehead RSPB and Caerlaverock WWT (Dumfries & Galloway), and the Montrose Basin LNR (Angus).

 

So why not keep your eyes to the skies, wrap up warmly and join the experts for a not-to-be missed wildlife wonder?

 

Did you know?

• Geese don’t just make a ‘honk-honk’ sound in fact different species of geese makes different sounds.        

           - The Pink-footed goose makes a “wink-wink” sound.

           - The barnacle makes a ‘yap-yap- sound which is sometimes likened to a yappy dog. 

• The greylag goose once had an ancient role as a fertility symbol.
• Pink-footed geese fly in a V formation but no one is entirely sure why.
• In the UK, almost 250,000 geese spend the winter on wetland and farmland habitats – that’s 90% of the world’s population.
• When geese come in to land they can often be seen descending rapidly from a height using an action known as ‘whiffling’. This involves rapid side-slipping in alternate directions, as they spill air from their wings, and is used to avoid a long, slow descent especially over an area where wildfowling is practised. It results in an aerial manoeuvre in which a bird flies with its neck twisted 180 degrees and its body upside down in order to achieve a rapid yet controlled descent.