The whole country is goose country. The Netherlands consists largely of grass and grain that geese love. To feel safe at night, there is enough water. Geese fly to that water in the evening and to the meadow in the morning.
Barnacle geese, greylag geese, white-fronted geese and bean geese are the most numerous. At sea you have brent geese and then there are a few rare ones such as lesser pink-footed goose and red-breasted goose. There are few subspecies of bean geese and brent geese that breed further east in Asia and differ subtly in appearance.
Traditionally, those geese breed(d) in the far north and northeast. They increasingly stay in the Netherlands to breed. Since 1980, greylag geese have colonized the country. Shot barnacle geese could not fly away and were the first to spend the summer here, sometimes with a body full of hail pellets.
Two exotic newcomers
Two exotic newcomers joined all these wild geese: Egyptian Geese and Canada Geese. Geese of either cut are bred as ornamental birds and have probably escaped, appearing to be coping well in the wild.
First it was the Egyptian geese who came, saw and conquered. They breed at great heights on stork nests and in bird of prey nests. They can scare hawks out of their horst.
Now there are the Canadians. A few years ago I didn’t see that much in the Northern Netherlands. Now I see them everywhere. Every morning two of them fly over, honking loudly. It’s a pair that chose the city pond behind our house. They easily join the crested ducks, park ducks, coots and grebes. I haven’t caught them nesting or brooding yet, but that seems like a matter of days. Canada geese at home for the first time.
The increase in geese has started with the cessation of goose hunting at home and abroad. Since we only protect animals when they are in bad shape, we have reopened goose hunting.
Three times a week, biologist Koos Dijksterhuis writes about something that grows or blooms. Read his previous Nature Diaries here.