'Ganso' Goose goes down

After just doing a blog story on neck collared Greylag Geese another amazing story pops up. We have just heard from Derek Faulkner concerning the second ever Spanish ringed Greylag Goose to reach our shores.

Greylag Goose 1003016, also known as neck collar 'Black 07T' met with a wildfowler on 9th Feb at Shellness on the Isle of Sheppey, Kent after being ringed as an adult on 7th Jan 1999 at Reserva Biologica de Donana, Huelva (1711km in 4416 days).


View Spanish ringed Greylag in a larger map

Its always good to know that some Greylag Geese are truely wild as these birds can be very easily overlooked on any birding trip. Tim Ball adds "the migration atlas makes no mention of southern wintering Greylag Geese migrating through the UK - my guess is that this bird was wintering much further north than it used to (and as a species)- obviously a single dated record doesn't mean it spent all winter in the UK but it wouldn't be the normal migration track for birds between Spain and NE Europe otherwise there would surely have been other recoveries."

Thanks to David Falkner for letting us know and Tim Ball and Rod Smith for their input.