The barnacle geese will soon be on their way...

...but don't fret, next year there will be still more of them

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By Elsa Tuppurainen
     
      The nearly 4,000 barnacle geese (Branta leucopsis) that call the Greater Helsinki region home at present will soon be up and away. When the first serious frosts start to bite, this bunch will head south. Snow and ice tend to interfere with their grazing.
      This year a total of 464 nesting barnacle goose pairs were recorded in the metropolitan area. This marked an increase of around 25% on the previous year.
      Barnacle geese are relative newcomers to Helsinki. The first nesting pairs were noticed in the late 1980s, as a few birds decided against making the full journey to their Arctic breeding grounds, and settled here instead, often nesting on the rocky skerries to be found between Suomenlinna and the centre of town. There are also a good many birds on the island of Korkeasaari, home of the Helsinki Zoo.
     
The autumn population of barnacle geese grew appreciably more this year, by an estimated 62% on 2003 figures.
      If the species flourishes at the present rate, in three years’ time there will be more than a thousand nesting pairs in this neck of the woods, and upwards of 10,000 birds congregating here at this time of year, preparing to head south and west.
      New concentrations of the birds will probably spring up to the west and east of the city in spots where there are the tended grassy areas and lawns that they rather like.
      Tapiola in Espoo is already one favourite haunt for them, on the lawns close to the main shopping centre.
     
Barnacle geese are considerably smaller - and also less aggressive - than Canada geese (Branta Canadensis), but in large numbers they can still produce an uncommon amount of droppings.
      The City of Helsinki’s Environment Centre is aware of the problem, but regards it as an aesthetic one rather than a public health concern: at least according to current indications, the faeces do not contain salmonella bacteria.
     
Researchers are nevertheless worried about a possible impending battle for airspace.
      If the geese learn to feed on the rich pickings of the grassy areas between the runways at Helsinki-Vantaa International, or on the fields around the airport, then they will pose a threat to air traffic.
      When they do leave, the geese will not be heading very far away. Some winter on the west coast of Denmark, while ringed specimens from Helsinki have regularly been found in Holland.
     
Helsingin Sanomat / edited for IntEd from an article first published in print 20.10.2004


Links:
  EU List of Most Threatened Birds in Europe: Barnacle Goose
  City of Helsinki Environment Centre Guide (in Finnish)

ELSA TUPPURAINEN / Helsingin Sanomat
elsa.tuppurainen@hs.fi