Wildgänse Lower Austria

Wild geese form a species-rich group within the waterfowl that can be identified reliably by bill colour, head markings and wing pattern. The greylag goose is the largest native species at 76 to 89 centimetres and around 3.5 kilograms; its plumage looks overall paler and greyer, with light-grey forewings in flight. The bean goose is slightly smaller and browner, with a black bill carrying an orange band. The white-fronted goose is recognised by its white blaze at the base of the bill and the black barring across the breast and belly. The barnacle goose and the brent goose are smaller sea geese with sharply contrasting black-and-white markings.

Breeding versus migratory status is clearly separated. The greylag breeds widely on lakes, river floodplains and lowland areas across northern Germany. All other species are classic migrants from Arctic and sub-Arctic breeding grounds. From late August they leave their Siberian, Icelandic or Greenlandic nesting areas and cover several thousand kilometres to reach the Central European staging and wintering grounds. The Wadden Sea along the German North Sea coast, the Lower Rhine, the Lower Elbe and the Rheiderland count among the most important resting sites for Arctic wild geese in Germany on an international scale.

Classic goose hunting follows the daily rhythm of the birds. Wild geese roost on large open waterbodies and fly out at first light to their feeding fields on grassland, stubble or winter crops. The traditional approach is an early-morning ambush at the feeding ground from a hide over a spread of 20 to 60 shell or collapsible goose decoys, set in a U-shape relative to the wind. Geese always land into the wind, so experienced hunters position the hide with the wind at their back or side, and both hide and decoy spread go up in darkness. Pass-shooting along known flight lines requires accurate shooting, because the calm wingbeat masks the true altitude of the birds and the dense plumage makes shots beyond roughly 30 metres unreliable.

Populations of many Arctic species have grown sharply in recent decades, leading to substantial conflict with agriculture. The hotspots are the coastal grassland regions of Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein, where barnacle, white-fronted and greylag geese cause significant feeding damage to oilseed rape, winter cereals, sugar beet and grassland. Industry bodies estimate annual losses in northern Germany at several million euros across some 18,000 hectares of affected farmland. Compensation through resting-peak schemes and agri-environmental measures is widely seen by farmers as insufficient. The German Hunting Association recommends focusing goose hunts on morning sessions at damage and feeding sites away from the roost waters, to combine deterrence and hunting efficiency with the need to keep the resting sites themselves undisturbed.