A question for ornithologists

[Yellow Fang]

I saw some geese landing on the River Kennet this morning. Are they actually supposed to be here? It's November.

 

[Asa Post]

I saw some geese landing on the River Kennet this morning. Are they actually supposed to be here? It's November.

What type of geese were they? Lots of geese spend the winter in this country. BBC's Autumnwatch has been going on about them for weeks.

 

[YahudaMoon]

Was a goose not the choice for christmas table before we took on the American trend ?

 

[Yellow Fang]

What type of geese were they? Lots of geese spend the winter in this country. BBC's Autumnwatch has been going on about them for weeks.

They looked like bog standard Canada Geese, but maybe White-fronted Geese.

 

[Asa Post]

They looked like bog standard Canada Geese, but maybe White-fronted Geese.

Most likely to be Canadas.
They were introduced into this country hundreds of years ago and are now resident. British breeders largely sedentary, and divided into more or less discrete groups, though limited interchanges between adjacent sub-populations occur; in most areas movements shown by ringing seldom over 50 km (from Birds of the Western Palearctic). So they don't fly South for the winter. They eat plant materials, and as long as the ground isn't covered in deep snow and frozen solid, they can still feed.

White-fronted are rarer, and are winter visitors. Known from ringing to breed in Novaya Zemlya and Kolguev, northern Arkhangel, and Kanin Peninsula (from Birds of the Western Palearctic). They start moving South in late September or early October, so they've had plenty of time to get as far as England. Similar feeding habits to Canadas.

 

[Yellow Fang]

So what are those geese you see flying in V formation from August, honking as they go?

 

[YahudaMoon]

Most birds fly in a v formation for the slipstream. Just as cyclist do. Young and old are known to form at the rear and the stronger birds to the front

 

[growingvegetables]

If they're wild geese, they'll have flown in from mid-September on.

Don't ever see their skeins over Leeds - but memories of the sight and sound of them is one of the VERY, VERY few things that's guaranteed to make me homesick.



Aye, and I lived near Caerlaverock a wee while - winter home to a population of barnacle geese. They'd fly in, - and if they were late, you could reckon on a mild winter; if early, then it was going to be a ****** of a winter!

 

[growingvegetables]

So what are those geese you see flying in V formation from August, honking as they go?

Best guess? Probably Pink-foots, or maybe Greylags?

Afik, other species are quite specific about their chosen winter resorts - like the Barnacle Geese, having a distinct preference for the gale-blasted mud-flats just south of Dumfries.

 

[Yellow Fang]

I'm getting really confused now. All these years I assumed geese were flying off somewhere warm for winter. It seems they may have been flying here.