Barnacle Goose

The Barnacle Goose is a medium-sized goose with a creamy white face and black head, neck, and upper breast. Its belly is white. The wings and its back are silver-gray with black-and-white bars. During flight a V-shaped white rump patch and the silver-grey underwing linings are visible. They are very sociable geese and fly in packs and long lines with a noisy chorus of barking or yapping sounds.

Barnacle Geese breed mainly on the Arctic islands of the North Atlantic. There are 3 main populations with separate breeding and wintering ranges.

Birds from eastern Greenland winter on Islay in western Scotland and in western Ireland whilst birds from the Svalbard winter on the Solway Firth on the Scotland/England border. Around 70,000 Barnacle Geese are present in the UK from October to March each year.

Small numbers of feral birds, derived from escapes from zoo collections, also breed in the UK and several other north European countries.

Date: 5th November 2007

Location: Loch Gruinart, Islay, Argyll