Barnacle Goose - Virginia

The short-billed Barnacle Goose, Branta leucopsis, has one population of about 8,000 birds which breeds in northeastern Greenland.  They begin migration in late August-early September, and most birds stage in southeast Iceland.   Having left Iceland in late September, by November most have reached their British and Irish wintering grounds.  Studies have shown that these birds are faithful to their wintering grounds, with over 70% of banded birds returning to the same location the following winter.

Historically, coastal pastures and saltmarshes are favored feeding areas, where rhizomes, grasses, herbs, crop stubble, and undersown grasses, have been the winter food.  Although the ABA Checklist gives a Code 5 status to Barnacle Goose, the number of individuals present in New England states this winter is greater than their current status would indicate. Winter site fidelity might explain why this species has been present in the same areas the previous few winters.

Recently, a Barnacle Goose was reported on 13 April by William Leigh in Rockbridge, Virginia.  Sightings of this species west of the Atlantic seaboard have been dismissed by most records' committees as escapees from captivity, as this species is one of a number of non-native waterfowl species raised by waterfowl fanciers.

A group of geese, in addition to being called "a gaggle of geese" has also been called "plump of geese", "string of geese" "chevron of geese", "knot of geese", and "blizzard of geese."  The common name, Barnacle Goose, comes from the imagined similarity of this species' head and neck pattern, to a goose-necked barnacle.  In folklore and before their breeding grounds were discovered, Barnacle Geese were thought to develop from these barnacles, which attach themselves to flotsam, drifting about in ocean currents. While the biology of Barnacle Goose has been sorted out, evidence of the provenance of many individuals that appear each winter in the ABA Area, has not.

Bill Maynard
Editor - Winging It