Wild geese

16 places to see and hear wild geese in the wild, in 10 countries from Denmark to Spain: when each one peaks, where to go on your own, what it costs and what you will hear. Wild animals only, no zoos.

Best time, place by place

Where to go, north to south

• Wadden Sea autumn: geese, waders and whooper swans in the marshDenmark · Wintering waterfowl · peak 10 Oct–10 DecBarnacle goose yapping in flocks of tens of thousands over the Ballum marsh, brent geese growling on the flats, golden plover flocks whistling, whooper swan families bugling on the polders at night, curlew; the tide.
• Pink-footed goose dawn flightsUnited Kingdom · Wintering waterfowl · peak 1 Nov–31 Jan and 1 Oct–31 OctTens of thousands of geese lifting off the mudflats at first light in a wall of 'wink-wink' calls, wave after wave overhead.
• Whooper swans & barnacle geeseUnited Kingdom · Wintering waterfowl · peak 1 Nov–28 FebBugling whoopers and yapping barnacle flocks like a huge crowd; the whole Svalbard barnacle population is on one estuary.
• Light-bellied brent geese arriving in Dublin BayIreland · Wintering waterfowl · peak 15 Oct–15 MarThe soft, rolling 'rrronk' chorus of brent flocks on the lagoon and the salt marsh, godwits and knot calling at the roost, curlews over the mudflats — all against the hum of Dublin port, the DART and the city.
• Greenland white-fronted geese on the Wexford SlobsIreland · Wintering waterfowl · peak 1 Nov–15 MarThe high, laughing, musical yelps of thousands of white-fronts lifting off the harbour and dropping onto the fields; brent geese's low growl along the shore; whooper swan bugling; wigeon whistling; curlews over the sand flats.
• Lauwersmeer in winter: barnacle geese, wigeon and sea eaglesNetherlands · Wintering waterfowl · peak 1 Nov–31 JanBarnacle geese yapping in a continuous chorus on the polder and the roar of 10,000 lifting at once; greylags and white-fronts honking in the dawn flight; wigeon whistling in the dark; eagles' yelps; the Dark Sky Park is genuinely quiet at night.
• Oostkustpolders: pink-footed and white-fronted geese of the Flemish coastBelgium · Wintering waterfowl · peak 20 Nov–20 JanThe high, yelping chorus of thousands of pink-footed geese on the meadows and the roar when a flock lifts at a harrier; white-fronts' laughing calls; wigeon whistling; skylarks and lapwings in mild spells.
• Lower Oder Valley: whooper swans, geese and the flooded poldersGermany · Wintering waterfowl · peak 10 Jan–20 FebWhooper swan bugling in chorus over the polder ice-edge, geese lifting at dawn by the thousand, smew and goldeneye wing-whistle, eagle yelps; in October, cranes; in May, corncrakes at night.
• Wadden Sea autumn: millions of waders and geeseGermany · Migration · peak 15 Sep–20 OctKnot and dunlin flocks in the tens of thousands wheeling with a rushing wing-roar, curlew and godwit calls at the roost, brent geese growling, barnacle geese yapping; wind, surf and the tide-edge trickle.
• Arctic geese on the Lower RhineGermany · Wintering waterfowl · peak 1 Dec–10 FebWhite-fronted geese's high yelping in skeins of thousands, bean geese's deeper 'kayak', the roar of a roost lifting off the Rhine at first light, whooper swans on the Bislicher Altrhein; barges and the A57 underneath.
• Banc d'Arguin terns & Arcachon brent geeseFrance · Seabird colony · peak 15 May–15 Jul and 15 Oct–15 JanA grating Sandwich tern colony of thousands of pairs on a sandbank in the Atlantic swell; in winter, the rolling 'rronk' of brent flocks on the eelgrass beds.
• Baie de l'Aiguillon: wader roosts and winter geeseFrance · Wintering waterfowl · peak 1 Oct–28 FebThe roar of 20,000 dunlin and plover lifting off the mud as the tide covers it, godwit and curlew flocks calling as they cross the dyke, wigeon whistling by the thousand on winter mornings, greylags at dawn and, in December, cranes bugling in to roost over the marsh.
• Goose autumn at the Lange Lacke, SeewinkelAustria · Wintering waterfowl · peak 20 Oct–10 DecGeese in skeins of thousands crossing the pastures at dusk, greylag chatter on the soda lake roost through the night, cranes trumpeting overhead in late October, eagle calls; the salt-steppe silence in between.
• Winter wetlands: geese, ducks & cranesItaly · Wintering waterfowl · peak 1 Dec–28 FebGoose flights at dawn, whistling wigeon rafts, cranes bugling as they pass north in late winter.
• Wintering greylags at VillafáfilaSpain · Wintering waterfowl · peak 20 Nov–31 JanWaves of greylags leaving the saline lagoons at first light in a continuous honking chorus, with great bustards grunting on the stubble and cranes overhead.
• Doñana in winter: geese and the marismasSpain · Wintering waterfowl · peak 1 Dec–31 JanTens of thousands of greylags calling at first light, wigeon whistling in rafts, flamingos honking, glossy ibis colonies grunting, and the near-total absence of roads in the marsh core.

More: every animal and kind · what is on in October