Why Goose Management Is So Important
Its 05:30am on a fresh November morning on Orkney and I am nestled between my spaniel and my semi-automatic in a ditch running the length of a grass field. Infront of me lays a pattern of full-bodied goose decoys facing into the wind. We can hear them down on the loch, but they aren’t ready yet. The sun is slowly beginning to show itself on the horizon and I watch as the first signs of life start to make their appearance. We sit in silence, waiting. Then all of a sudden, you feel it. You can feel the weight lift from the loch, hear the change in their calls and the sound of their wings. My eyes turn to the sky and sure enough there they are, in their thousands. I watch as skeins start to head across the island in search of fields to graze. One skein seems to be making its way towards me, so I tuck myself into the bank and give them a couple of honks on my caller and listen. There it is the distinct honk of a greylag responding to my call.
For anyone wanting to get into shooting wild birds, identification of species is vital. In the UK we have several different species of geese; some residential, some migratory, some protected and some on general license. The main ones you’ve possibly heard of are Greylags, Pinkfoot and Canada but we also have Barnacle, White-fronted, Brent, Bean, and Egyptian.
Identifying geese can be based on colour, time of year, size, location, and on their calls, for example, a Pinkfoot has a higher-pitched call than a Greylag. Greylags are our most common residential goose, they are grey-bodied with an orange bill. Pinkfoots have a dark head, pink legs and feet and a black and pink bill. Whereas Canadas have a black head, bill and neck with a white patch on the throat, white undersides, and black legs. Canada geese are the largest of the three weighing 3-9kgs, Greylags are the second largest weighing 2.5-4.1kgs and Pinkfoots are the smallest weighing 1.8-3.3kg.
Within living memory the sight of a goose was something to behold, a goose was held high on a wildfowlers bucket list and people used to turn their heads to the sky to watch skeins of migratory geese making their way to the UK for the winter. However, in just a handful of decades, many now regard geese as pests.
Counting the number of geese in the UK is a challenge but if we focus just on Orkney initially, in 2002 the RSPB reported the islands had just 300 breeding pairs of residential greylag geese. These numbers are now believed to be around 24-27,000! Add the other species and migratory geese to that figure and we aren’t talking low numbers, 63,534 geese were seen in the last Orkney goose count completed in 2018.
In the winter of 1984 1,500 pink-footed geese were counted in Norfolk, today that number is believed to be around 100,000 although a couple of sources state that number to be much higher!
Geese are primarily grazers feeding on seeds and grass. Looking at population numbers that’s a lot of bills and feet trampling and eating farmers’ crops and grass! Throughout recent years there have been several studies into the damage caused to crops by geese, I’m yet to find one that doesn’t show a correlation between goose numbers and the level of crop damage. Some have documented cases of up to 50% harvest loss due to goose grazing!
So, how do we manage goose numbers? There are goose management schemes and plans up and down the country attempting to manage goose numbers by various methods.
Methods of goose management:
- Putting out scarecrows, old cars, bits of machinery
- Using flashing lights and sirens
- Egg oiling – a method of coating eggs with mineral oil shortly after they have been laid to prevent them from hatching
- Corralling and culling – this involves rounding up geese whilst they are molting and are unable to fly, then culling them, often by lethal injection or shooting.
- Falconry or dogs to deter geese from the area
- Shotgun or rifle shooting
Shotgun shooting geese comes in many different forms; you could be wildfowling on the foreshore, marshes, estuaries, inland splashes or decoying grass or stubble fields. Either way as with many forms of shooting there is never a guarantee, but isn’t that part of the fun? I’ve had many a morning or evening where I’ve drawn a blank. Equally, I’ve also had times when it has all gone perfectly to plan. As much as we are given this opportunity because of the need to manage goose numbers there is so much more too it. It’s the stunning sunrises and sunsets, its seeing parts of nature you would otherwise never experience and its appreciation for the quarry we shoot.
If like me, you care about where your food comes from, goose management/control is a great way to fill your freezer! We breast or pluck every bird we shoot (heads up plucking goose is more time-consuming than pheasant or partridge but if you’ve got time they make for an amazing roast, one to bear in mind with Christmas coming up!). Although I won’t lie to you goose breast after goose breast can get slightly tedious for the pallet, so last year I bought a cheap electric mincer on Amazon and it massively increased the variety of dishes we can use goose for. Honestly, any dish you cook today with chicken, beef, pork, etc. goose can be a replacement. Goose mince lasagne or goose curry are particular favourites in our household!
This type of shooting doesn’t offer the same hospitality or social aspects that driven game does but if you are prepared to wait out the often wet, muddy and cold conditions I promise you, the self-satisfaction you will feel and the appreciation for the world we live in is second to none.
