Pink-footed Goose (Winter Migration)

Over the past week or so increasing numbers of migratory geese have started to show along the Yorkshire Coast. I had my first of the Autumn last Tuesday (11th September), a magnificent flock of approximately 86 pink-feet flying south, quite high (from the office window ;)). Various observations locally and nationally have reported pink-feet moving south for the winter over recent weeks.  

In Europe there are two core breeding populations of pink footed goose. One in Svalbard, which migrates through Norway down into Denmark and across to winter in Holland and Belgium. The larger population, of which we are more familiar with, breeds in Iceland and Greenland and winters in Britain. Both populations are entirely migratory and consist of c.260,000 birds, which is the entire global population for this species. Interestingly very few of these birds winter in Ireland, with Norfolk and a number of regions in Scotland (Morey Firth, Fife) being perhaps the key wintering site in Britain.

The majority of the birds in Greenland depart from the breeding/moulting grounds in late August, and move towards Iceland where they then join the breeding birds there. The first pink-feet tend to be reported in Britain around early-mid September, increasing in numbers until the middle of October. They tend to move through Scotland as would be expected and stop off at a number of regularly used sites. There is considerable movement in the winter between areas in Britain, before they begin to return north around February and March.

These two individuals dropped in at Filey dams last week and remained for several days.