As a normal rule, geese are birds of delicate, even boring, plumage. All of the so-called gray geese – Greylag, Bean, White-front, Lesser White-front, Swan – look very a lot alike, and it takes expertise to determine them by their calls and their form and dimension. The black geese – Brent/Brant, Canada, Barnacle – present a little bit extra selection, however there’s just one goose that basically stands out for its putting plumage, and that’s the appropriately named Purple-breasted. With its deep chestnut-red breast, beautiful head sample and black and white physique it’s an exceedingly good-looking chicken, and one which by no means fails to draw admirers when one turns up in Britain. 

Purple-breasted geese have at all times been uncommon guests to the British Isles. The primary file is of a chicken shot in 1776, throughout a extreme frost, not removed from London. Within the subsequent 170 years there have been simply 13 information. Nowadays sightings of those pleasant geese have change into rather more frequent, and through most winters a couple of birds may be present in Britain. This present winter isn’t any exception, and on the time of writing there aren’t any fewer than 5 to be seen at 4 completely different areas.

Explaining the rise within the variety of sightings is troublesome, because the Siberian breeding inhabitants is declining. It would properly be as a result of there are way more folks in search of uncommon geese than was as soon as the case, and most of them are geared up with the type of optics that enable them to seek out uncommon birds even at excessive vary. In keeping with the British Belief for Ornithology’s BirdFacts web site, “Though a small variety of vagrant Purple-breasted Geese from the declining arctic Siberian breeding inhabitants winter in Britain every year, the species is well-liked in wildfowl collections and plenty of birds are of captive origin. Vagrants are usually present in flocks of Brent Geese or Barnacle Geese so the winter distribution map mimics the stopover and wintering areas of these species.”

Purple-breasts are certainly well-liked in wildfowl collections, however they’re useful birds which are hardly ever saved full-winged (it has been unlawful for a few years to maintain them un-pinioned) so nowadays escapes are comparatively uncommon. It’s often straightforward to determine whether or not a goose is of captive origin, for it’s prone to be tame and approachable, and to look in an unlikely setting, resembling a city park. Because the BTO notes, wild vagrants are often discovered blended in with Brent and Barnacle – each typical service species.

The immature Purple-breast in my {photograph} is at the moment wintering at Cley, on the North Norfolk coast, the place it’s change into a well-liked attraction for the various birdwatchers. (You’re prone to meet extra severe birders in North Norfolk in at some point than wherever else in Britain, or wherever in Europe for that matter). With so many individuals in search of it on daily basis, it’s hardly shocking that its every day actions are monitored rigorously. It likes to spend its mornings in firm with a number of hundred Darkish-bellied Brent Geese on what is named the Eye Area, near the ocean. 

Even if it’s typically seen on daily basis, discovering it isn’t so simple as it might appear, and my first try, earlier this month, was a failure. It’s outstanding how as distinctive a chicken as a Purple-breasted Goose can disappear inside a giant flock of Brent, and it might probably take a number of work with the scope to select it out. My most up-to-date try and see it, earlier this week, was comparatively straightforward, as all I needed to do was search for the small group of birdwatchers already watching it. As soon as I had joined them, choosing it out was easy, however attempting to identify it with out binoculars, even at shut vary was nonetheless troublesome. Regardless of its distinctive plumage, a Purple-breast is surprisingly properly camouflaged. 

I used to be properly conscious of this, as I’ve watched flocks of Purple-breasts in Bulgaria, a daily wintering floor for these geese. Right here they’re often to be discovered with Russian White-fronted Geese, many lots of of hundreds of which winter across the Black Sea. In recent times the vast majority of the Purple-breasted Geese have stayed in Romania, with a lot smaller numbers in Bulgaria. (Final yr the height rely of Purple-breasts in Bulgaria was 800, with 14,600 over the border in Romania). The Purple-breasts are inclined to preserve collectively, although throughout the White-front flocks, and it at all times takes a while with the scope to select them out, even when there are lots of of birds current.  The {photograph} under was digiscoped in Bulgaria in February 2007. A lot of the birds are White-fronts, however there are a couple of Purple-breasts there, too (truthfully!)

It’s maybe shocking that Branta rufficollis so seldom associates with White-fronts when in Western Europe. The very first Purple-breast I noticed was a younger chicken blended in with Barnacle Geese at Caerlaverock on the shores of the Solway, in south-east Scotland. That was in October 1991. I’ve since seen particular person Purple-breasts in winter within the Netherlands (with Brent), in Estonia on spring passage (at all times with Barnacles), and on the Swedish island of Öland in autumn (once more with Barnacles). I’ve additionally seen them in Greece twice: one sighting was a flock of 9 birds at Lake Kerkini in January 2010, whereas a single particular person I noticed there in November 2017 was accompanying Russian Whitefronts (and never the close by Lesser Whitefronts.)

The goose I photographed earlier this week is a first-winter chicken: it exhibits 5 distinctive white bars on the closed wing – an grownup would solely present two. The breast can be a duller shade of purple than that of an grownup. Immature birds are extra usually recorded in Britain than adults, which is sensible, as they’re, one suspects, extra prone to get misplaced and caught up with flocks of Brent or Barnacles. Two years in the past I photographed one other Purple-breast in Norfolk (under). This was additionally a chicken that over-wintered and my {photograph} was taken on the finish of its keep, in mid-Might. It exhibits a definite third wing bar, suggesting that it was in all probability a second-winter particular person. 

One of many points of interest of wintering Purple-breasts is that they often change into established in a comparatively small space to which they continue to be devoted all through the winter and properly into the spring, lastly departing with their companions (Brent or Barnacle) on the finish of Might. This makes then comparatively straightforward for folks to seek out. With luck I would properly see the Cley chicken once more earlier than it heads again to Siberia. It’s a goose I by no means tire of seeing.

For extra info on the conservation of the Purple-breasted Goose, plus gorgeous pictures of those birds, go to https://savebranta.org/en. These geese breed in arctic Siberia, and their migration path to and from their wintering grounds takes them by a number of international locations, together with Russia, Kazakhstan and Ukraine, making their conservation a world problem. Stopping spring capturing and educating hunters about these endangered birds has helped scale back the strain on the species, however many threats nonetheless stay.