Photos

BARNACLE GOOSE - Bernache Nonette(F) - Nonnengans (D) - Brand Gans(NL).
Size: 58 to 70 cm, Wingspan 132-145 cm, Weight 1400-2400 g. Colors: black and white head, grey-blue back, white chest. Lives in colonies and nests in Arctic regions, above the cliffs. Migrates in winter to low and flooded lands. They migrate from three different regions:
1 - Greenland to Iceland, then Scotland and Ireland.
2 - Spitzberg, along the Norwegian coast to Solway gulf.
3 - New Zemble, thru Baltic Sea, North Sea, down to the Netherlands, where Zeeland is generally the most meridional place where they stop.

Barnacle Goose colonies live in the toundra, close to estuaries and coasts, where they eat grass and polar vegetation.
I've been observing birds for a while in this region, and it's the first one I find here.
Catched on the bank of the Seine river, where wild water birds like ducks, moorhens, cormorants, coots, herons, swans, etc can be found.
As this one was alone in the middle of a duck colony, I guess it's a lost one.
Highly protected species (red list). European population avg 8500 couples. French population (in winter) avg 50 individuals.
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I was able to take several shots, but this one illustrates the famous martial pace of some armies called the Goose Walk.