Comments

1. Ice Swimmer says

   October 25, 2016 at 9:14 am

   It used to be that barnacle geese only did stopovers or flew over Finland in the spring and late summer or early autumn, migrating between shores of North Sea and the Arctic Ocean. However, the Helsinki Zoo had run into overpopulation of their geese and set some young ones free, maybe assuming they would join the rest of the population and go nest on the shores of the Arctic Ocean. They started nesting here and found the lawns and other grassy areas near the shore that had nice fresh grass to eat and small islands and skerries to nest on.

   The geese find their mates in the wintering grounds in the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark and British Isles. I’m not sure how they choose where to migrate back to for the summer, but one goose in the pair is from the area they will eventually go and nest in.

   Who knows if the young ones in the photo have already found their SO, maybe from Finnmark or Spitsbergen in Norway, from White Sea coast in Russia or someone from the Finnish coastal areas.

2. rq says

   October 25, 2016 at 9:28 am

   Barnacle geese: one large international family.
   They’re so cute and fluffy, too! And the adults are pretty, I’d like to see some in real life sometime. Slightly smaller than Canada geese, I assume?

3. Ice Swimmer says

   October 25, 2016 at 9:42 am

   rq @ 2

   Yes, they are smaller, Canada geese are about 1.5 times longer and two or three times as heavy.