A Goose for Christmas 21st December 2025

For twenty five years (1987- 2012) between the months of September and March I carried out a monthly WeBS count  on behalf of the BTO at West Wittering in Sussex.The main species to feature in this count was a large flock (up to 2000) of Dark bellied Brent Geese that frequented fields especially left for them by the main car park.

Occasional excitement would come with the welcome discovery, twice, in 2007 and 2009 of a Red brested Goose from Russia, but otherwise it would be a single Black Brant, the North American cousin of the Dark bellied Brents, found on a number of occasions in the wintering West Wittering flock and likewise also the odd Pale bellied Brent Goose caught up amongst its dark bellied cousins.

Pale bellied Brent Geese breed in Arctic Canada, Greenland, Svarlbard and Franz Jospeh Land and come to spend the winter mainly in Ireland, with a majority inhabiting Strangford Lough in Northern Ireland whilst lesser numbers reach northwestern coasts of Scotland and England and a small wintering population is also present in Northumberland.

For Christmas and New Year we usually return to Scotland and this year we decided on Garlieston a small eighteenth century, remote  coastal village located on the Machars Peninsula in the county of Wigtownshire in Dumfries and Galloway.

Our cottage looks out to a tidal bay just a few metres distant and at low tide the evocative calls of Curlew and Redshank feeding on the exposed sands can be clearly heard through the windows.

The bay can, like many in Scotland at this time of year in the depths of winter  look desolate and barren  but even  such an unwelcoming prospect possesses a raw beauty of both sound and aspect with the trembling anxious calls of Curlews coming from the distant sea's edge across an emptiness of sand and rock below an ice blue sky, an evocative adjunct to the cold and stark contours of Garlieston in winter.

Garlieston

By noon the tide was full  and being so much further north the light was already commencing its descent into the golden hour before fading towards dusk. Amongst a scatter of Redshanks and Oystercatchers a small gathering of brent geese were guzzling weed from the rocky shore and a swift check in my binoculars revealed they had white flanks, the contrast with their darker upperbodies further highlighted as they caught the sun's rays. They were Pale bellied Brent Geese.

So familiar with the darker tones of the brent geese I had counted for so many years in Sussex they appeared so much more attractive, the contrasting shades of dark and pale plumage bringing a pleasing variety denied to their darker bellied cousins.

There were eighteen of them and I stood partially concealed by a waist high wall as they fed and bickered amongst themselves.At this hour I had the shore to myself, the dreaded dog walkers were absent on this Monday before Christmas, the village seemingly deserted of human kind and in thrall to winter when few come here to holiday but we are the exception this Christmas.

All geese  are, for most of the year sociable creatures and like to be with their own kind and the more the better.The brent I was looking at were no exception and kept in close company but still with time for the ganders to mildly protest with extended neck and partially opened bill if another breached its personal space.

I could see no evidence of juveniles amongst them so this past year must not have been a good one for the survival of any young. Brents have on average one good breeding year in every three which is cyclical and dependent on Arctic lemmings which share their Siberian breeding grounds. The geese and lemmings have a number of predators in common the chief of which is the Arctic Fox with gulls, skuas and even Snowy Owls also partial to young geese as a substitute if there are no lemmings available. If it is a productive year for lemmings then they will form the bulk of prey and there is less attention paid to the young geese which means a fair proportion survive to migrate south with their parents.

I subsequently met a local birder who told me these Pale bellied Brent Geese originate from the huge congregation that winter on Strangford Loch in Northern Ireland, not that far away as a brent goose flies, and have formed a regular winter feature in the last few years here at Garlieston.