Greylag Goose - Anser anser
I realised this Summer that there were dozens of exotic foreign birds that I don't see that often any more right on my doorstep. Forced to stay in the UK for a short while due to my own stupidity with logistics I managed to hook up with my brother and take a trip down to Trimley Marshes on the Suffolk coast. To get down to this hotspot a bicycle is a recomended piece of kit as its a fair old schlep from the car park. The marshes are tucked up on the River Orwell next to the container port at Felixstowe. Thats one of the peculiarities of birding in the UK - Minsmere abuts a nuclear power station, Barn Elms has views of a football ground - nature is infilled in the UK. Its patchy. Nature happily dines on the small bits of the earth we leave behind - either because they are of no use (yet) or someone thankfully has placed them out of reach.
The Greylag Goose is also something we have left behind. This is the original farmed goose domestiacted somewhere near Babylon before history was recorded. My Birds Britannica gives an epic list of the intertwining of this goose and man - they save Rome from being sacked by the Gauls with their alarm calls and one of their wishbones is used to steer the ships of the first Crusade ! The goose was industrialised - meat of course but also the feathers were used for arrows and also for quills - goose down for pillows - Iam sure the list goes on. In Medieval Britain there were huge flocks of geese necessary for the economy - and of course they were placed on the table at Christmas.
The orginal domesticated bird bred with the UK's wild birds after they arrived with the Romans. There are just 1,000 truly wild Greylags left but these are supplemented by 80,000 visiting Icelandic Geese each Winter.
Most are in the UK are termed "Feral" - which seems a bit wrong. They were domesticated and now they are not. I think squeezed in next to a container port they are entitled to a happy retirement next to the migrating waders and Winter shorebirds.
Grelag Goose, Anser anser
Trimely Marshes, Suffolk
August 2012
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