When I arrived at the Salmon River look-off the tide was high and rising. I stayed for an hour and when I left there was no sand bar left and all the birds were floating. I had hoped for some standing on the bar but alas I will have to return at an earlier time for that opportunity. 

The three Barnacle Geese were together most of the time and intermingled with the Canada Geese.

For listers this is a hard bird to count since there are escapees from time to time but the lateness of the year and the robustness of these Barnacle Geese would suggest that these are indeed wild birds.

Barnacle Goose 121 Barnacle Goose 101 Barnacle Goose 103 Barnacle Goose 104 Barnacle Goose 105 Barnacle Goose 106 Barnacle Goose 107 Barnacle Goose 108 Barnacle Goose 109 Barnacle Goose 110 Barnacle Goose 111 Barnacle Goose 112 Barnacle Goose 113 Barnacle Goose 114 Barnacle Goose 115 Barnacle Goose 116 Barnacle Goose 117 Barnacle Goose 118 Barnacle Goose 119 Barnacle Goose 120     

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

Not to be confused with Goose barnacle.

Barnacle goose
Conservation status
Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Anseriformes
Family:	Anatidae
Genus:	Branta
Species:	B. leucopsis
Binomial name
Branta leucopsis (Bechstein, 1803)
Range of the barnacle goose (note: also breeds in Iceland; grey is indicated as feral, but these populations were established by both wild birds and escaped captives, see text)

The barnacle goose (Branta leucopsis) is a species of goose that belongs to the genus Branta of black geese, which contains species with extensive black in the plumage, distinguishing them from the grey Anser species. Despite its superficial similarity to the brant goose, genetic analysis has shown its closest relative is the cackling goose.^[2]

Taxonomy and naming

The barnacle goose was first classified taxonomically by Johann Matthäus Bechstein in 1803. Branta is a Latinised form of Old Norse Brandgás, "burnt [black] goose" and the specific epithet is from the Ancient Greek leukos "white", and opsis "faced".^[3]

In the medieval period, the barnacle goose and the similar brant goose were not distinguished, and were formerly believed to spawn from the goose barnacle.^[4] This gave rise to the English name of the barnacle goose and the scientific name of the brant goose.^[3] The barnacle myth can be dated back to at least the 12th century. Gerald of Wales claimed to have seen these birds hanging down from pieces of timber, William Turner accepted the theory, and John Gerard claimed to have seen the birds emerging from their shells. The legend persisted until the end of the 18th century. In County Kerry, until relatively recently, Catholics abstaining from meat during Lent could still eat this bird because it was considered as fish.^[5] It is sometimes claimed that the word comes from a Celtic word for "limpet", but the sense-history seems to go in the opposite direction.^[6]

The barnacle goose is a medium-sized goose, 55–70 cm (22–28 in) long, with a wingspan of 120–145 cm (47–57 in) and a weight of 1.21–2.23 kg (2.7–4.9 lb).^{[7][8][9][10]} It has a white face and black head, neck, and upper breast. Its belly is white. The wings and its back are silver-grey with black-and-white bars that look like they are shining when the light reflects on it. During flight, a V-shaped white rump patch and the silver-grey underwing linings are visible. They look similar to cackling geese but have grey and white instead of brown bodies, and more extensive white on the head; from Canada geese they are additionally distinguished by being smaller, and having smaller beaks. The juveniles are similar to the adults, but like with all geese, can be distinguished by the rounded rather than square-ended mantle and flank feathers.^[7]

There are three original populations of barnacle geese, with separate breeding and wintering ranges. Since the 1960s, two new breeding populations have established themselves, both located along migration routes of two of the original populations. The five populations are:

• Breeding in eastern Greenland, wintering on the Hebrides of western Scotland and in western Ireland. Population increased from about 7,000 individuals in the 1960s to 44,000 in 2011.^[11]
• A recently established population, derived from the Greenland population, has bred more-or-less regularly in Iceland since 1964. The population has rapidly increased in the last few decades, with more than 4000 breeding pairs in 2024.^[12] They winter in the same area as Greenland population.^[13]
• Breeding on Svalbard, Norway, and wintering almost entirely in Solway Firth on the England/Scotland border, with small numbers elsewhere in the region, particularly around Budle Bay in Northumberland. This population increased from a few hundred individuals in the 1940s to about 34,000 in 2004,^[14][15] and 40,000 by the start of the 2020s.^[16]
• Breeding on Novaya Zemlya, Dolgy Island, Kanin Peninsula, Yugorsky Peninsula and the Barents Sea coastline in the Russian Arctic, wintering in the Wadden Sea area in southwest Denmark, northwest Germany and the Netherlands. Increased from about 70,000 individuals in 1980 to 1.2 million individuals in 2015.^[17]
• A recent population, derived from the Russian population along with escaped captive birds, has become established since 1971; breeding on islands in the Baltic Sea, and on islands and coasts of the southern North Sea (Estonia, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium). Winters in or near breeding range or moves to the Wadden Sea. Some exchange with Russian population continues. Rapidly increasing; the Danish, Dutch and Swedish populations each contain several thousand breeding pairs, and the Belgian, Estonian, Finnish and German populations each contain several hundred breeding pairs.^{[18][19][20][21]}

The species has been recorded as a vagrant in eastern Canada, the Northeastern United States and India; care must be taken to distinguish these wild birds from escaped individuals, as barnacle geese are popular waterfowl with collectors.^[22][23]