Rare geese on Ameland island

This is a video of (grey lag) geese on Texel island, near Den Hoorn and the Mokbaai, 1-7 January 2010.

Translated from Vroege Vogels radio in the Netherlands:

01 February 2010 15:45

Two special geese species are on the island of Ameland since this weekend. These are pink-footed goose and the pale-bellied brent goose, birds that breed on the remote Svalbard archipelago in the Arctic Ocean. Probably the birds will remain on Ameland because of the harsh cold in the far north.

In the winter, these small geese will massively flock to the south, especially to the Danish fjords. They leave there only during severe winters in Denmark. Now that the freezing threatens to close the fjords, many geese have moved away. The expectation is that the numbers on Ameland will increase until February, if the winter continues in the north.

Now, there are more than ten different kinds of geese on Ameland and that is exceptional. Also species like the tundra bean goose and white-fronted goose are now seen more than in other years. In normal winters, mostly barnacle geese and brent geese stay on the island. Of the latter species, the numbers in May may increase to as many as 50,000 birds.

Photos of Ameland geese here.

Bird migration on Texel: here.

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