COMING TO A PARK NEAR YOU
It is a mystery at the moment. What will never change, I suspect, is the widespread perception that this is a strange bird. Its nesting sites are famously peculiar for such a large wildfowl – generally it uses holes in large, old trees, especially willows, although it will use platforms and sometimes takes up a more conventional site such as an island in a lake. Its feeding habits are unremarkable, grazing on grass and stripping its seeds, often taking to spilled crops such as maize and barley – but it is unlikely that a change in diet has led to its expansion. It is less sociable than many others of its kind, although it does sometimes gather in moulting flocks in the late summer. The noises it makes are somewhat strange, the female making a nasal call like the sound of a child repeatedly and over-enthusiastically blowing a toy trumpet, while the male makes a breathy hiss. However, while it is a curious bird, you wouldn’t pick it out as the sort to set out on a conquest. But, that is exactly what it is doing. In the research for this article, I came across a small detail I never expected to find. I had always associated this bird with Africa. Its name derives, after all, from its prominence as a symbol of worship to the Ancient Egyptians, and these days it occurs almost throughout the continent, except for large forested areas. However, what I didn’t realise was that, until the late 17th Century, it was a European breeding bird, occurring in Hungary, Romania and Serbia, in the valley of the Danube. Who knows where it might have occurred in Europe before then? The fact is, one day the Egyptian Goose might colonise much of the rest of Europe. But it isn’t an incongruous stranger. It is coming home. Perhaps it is the odd appearance which means that UK birdwatchers find it hard to accept Egyptian Geese Egytian Geese may nest in willows or on islands on lakes
OUT OF AFRICA? Though associated with Africa, historically, the geese also bred wild in south-eastern Europe