Pink-footed goose

Charles Smith-Jones evokes the mystery of this prized quarry for wildfowlers

- Charles Smith-Jones

Anser brachyrhynchus

Stand in the right place on a winter’s morning as they fly out to their feeding grounds, or when they return to their roosts for the night, and you’ll probably hear them coming long before you see them. Initially, it will be just a distant murmur, then it grows into a faint crackling and clamoring that signals that the geese are on the move.

At first, it may only be a small advance party of a few birds that pass overhead and you can hear the wink-wink wink call of individuals, but before you know it the sky is filled by V-shaped skein after skein, the sound filling the air, as hundreds, perhaps thousands, of birds stream past. It’s an emotional experience and one of the world’s great wildlife spectacles; the noise is overwhelming and the sight incredible. All too soon the show is over and the silence that descends is almost as dramatic as the sound of their passing.

High numbers

In Norfolk alone, the numbers of overwintering pink-footed geese have been estimated to be as high as 70,000, while overall the British population is reckoned to be in the region of some 360,000 birds and represents our most abundant goose species. Although only about 50,000 visited​ Britain to overwinter in the 1950s, increased protection has helped to ensure that numbers have risen to their present levels.