Arctic geese on the Lower Rhine

Tundra bean goose, greater white-fronted goose (up to 150,000 combined), greylag, barnacle geese; whooper swans; smew on the gravel lakes. Niederrhein between Duisburg and Kleve (Bislicher Insel, Düffel, Rheinaue Walsum), Germany.

Best time: 1 Dec – 10 Feb (December to February). Where: Bislicher Insel – NABU-Naturforum (Xanten), Düffel – NABU-Naturschutzstation Niederrhein, Kranenburg, Rheinaue Walsum (Duisburg) (Germany). Time of day: Set up in the dark: roost flights lift off the Rhine from civil dawn to 30 min after sunrise.

• You can go on your own
• Free
• Binoculars helpful
• Sound 5/5

Open it in the interactive calendarSunrise and sunset listening times for the day you pick, and the map.

When is the best time?

Peak: 1 Dec – 10 Feb. December to 10 February

Active from 15 Oct to 10 Mar (October to March) in a typical year.

Time of day

Set up in the dark: roost flights lift off the Rhine from civil dawn to 30 min after sunrise; the return from an hour before sunset until dusk; the roost murmurs all night.

• Dawn departure: first light → 30 min after sunrise
• Evening return: 1 h before sunset → last light

What will you hear?

White-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.

Binoculars?

Binoculars helpful. Skeins pass low over the dyke at dawn; binoculars for the feeding flocks and swans on the Altrhein.

Where to go

• Bislicher Insel – NABU-Naturforum (Xanten) — Old Rhine loop with hides; c. 25,000 geese roost; guided goose tours Nov–Feb. Map
• Düffel – NABU-Naturschutzstation Niederrhein, Kranenburg — Feeding polders near the Dutch border; the station runs the goose excursions and posts counts. Map
• Rheinaue Walsum (Duisburg) — Southernmost big roost, industrial backdrop of the Ruhr; interesting contrast. Map

How to go on your own, and what it costs

Bislicher Insel: park at the NABU-Naturforum (Xanten) and walk the public dyke and NSG paths in the dark for the dawn lift-off; some hides are locked outside events. Düffel: the roads and dykes around Kranenburg (NABU station posts counts). Walsum: the Rhine dyke. Never enter the goose fields.

Cost: Free; NABU goose tours (check current prices).

Who runs access

• NABU-Naturschutzstation Niederrhein – Wildgänse tours (NGO) — Guided goose excursions Nov–Feb from Kranenburg and Bislich.

Field-recording notes

Geese feed on private farmland (do not enter — fields with geese are also under agri-compensation schemes); the Rhine dykes and NSG paths are public, but some NABU hides are locked outside events. Roost flights pass low over the dykes at Bislich at civil dawn — set up in the dark and stay flat. Noise: Rhine barge traffic 24/7 (a rhythmic low element), the A57 and Wesel–Xanten road, and hunting: goose shooting is legal in NRW outside the reserves in winter, so weekends carry shots. Fog days in January are the acoustically best (no visual, full sound).

Sources

• NABU-Naturschutzstation Niederrhein – Wildgänse
• NABU NRW – Wildgänse am Niederrhein

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More: all spectacles in Germany · wild geese · winter geese, swans and ducks · Germany in January · February · Germany in December