In visiting my bean goose files on my pc today I had a look at some pictures that Simon Rix took last spring and thought I would share them and my thoughts with you today.
We have been extremely lucky in recent years that Simon in Oslo has found our bean geese in his birding haunts around Oslo. Not only does he report numbers and tag information but he supplies lovely pictures of the geese at the same time. I have looked out three of them today to share them with you with and of my recent thoughts about how geese behave as pairs and families.
One of the pleasures in recent years has been to monitor how pairs bond together and look after their juveniles in the early years. This is portrayed in one of the pictures below.
Bean Goose pairs stay together throughout their lives and when in Scotland during the winter it is normal to see pairs feeding together and rarely two metres apart. If they have juveniles of the year they too will be close by their parents which often is very useful when we try to work out how many juveniles we have within the flock. It has been noted at Slamannan, juveniles can often be seen with their parents in the 2nd year too before they eventually split up and move away to become young adults.
Earlier this year when visiting the RSPB reserve at the Crook of Baldoon near Wigtown at dusk I met up with some wildfowlers who were awaiting an appropriate time to go out on to the merse to shoot geese.
On reflection to what they do for sport/pleasure it made me think of what goes on in the mind of a wildfowler.
Why do they find it sporting/pleasurable to shoot one or more geese when the birds are flying in to and around a roost area. Do they ever think of the effect they have on a male/female goose who suddenly loses its partner to such a sudden death? Probably not and that makes me sad that humans can inflict such social anguish on this species.
Pictures below courtesy of Simon Rix.
4 pairs above (social distancing?)
A pair with one bird who had lost his collar. (note
metal ring on left leg)
Just a lovely picture
