At the coldest time of the year the wonder of wintering geese cheers us up and we know the seasons have changed when we hear their airborne cries and yelps. January and February in northern Europe is deepest winter, the earth held in an icy grip. A tough time for most birds – but not geese. The Netherlands are the winter sanctuary for hundreds of thousands of geese from Russia and the far North, like these Barnacle Geese.

 

 

In Arizona, New Mexico and southern California the wonder of wintering geese comes in the form of Snow Geese, which arrive by the million, pushed by the harsh winter in their summer breeding home of arctic Canada.

 

 

Argentina’s mid- winter is July and a beautiful goose, that breeds in the high Andes, then descends to lower elevations.  This is the Andean Goose and we were fortunate to see many of these birds in NW Argentina near to Tafi del Valle in the province of Tucuman.

 

 

Paula and I would be out well before the orange glow of dawn streaked across the marsh. Settling down at our favourite spot close to a fence we would wait. Eventually their high pitched calls would alert us as the geese drfrited low over the willow trees and came down onto the frosted grass.