Brant Geese Plum Cove Beach Gloucester
Just kidding, however, they have recently been spotted all around Cape Ann! Several weeks ago I noticed three on Niles Beach, yesterday another 20 or so bobbing and diving in the waves off a little beach in Rockport, and this morning Michelle Anderson emailed that her son Atticus, with his eagle eyes, had spotted a blizzard at Plum Cove Beach. I was working on a design project in Andover and wasn’t able to get there until afternoon. The Brants were still there! Perhaps there were 50 or so feeding at the shoreline and another several hundred further off shore.
The geese are shy. At one point while photographing, I lay flat down in the beach grass trying to blend in with the landscape while inching forward, but they were not deceived. Too far away for my camera to get a good close up, and heavily overcast today, nonetheless you can see that they are quite beautiful creatures.
Brant Geese Rockport
Smaller than Canadian geese, the Brant Goose, also called Brent, Black Brant, and American Brant, is a coastal bird that breeds in the Arctic tundra. It migrates along both the Atlantic and Pacific flyways. With white or buff belly, black head and neck, and contrasting white bars at the neck, Brants are easy to identify. They feed on green plants including sea lettuce and eel grass. Brants have a highly developed salt gland, which allows them to consume salt water.
PLEASE LET US KNOW IF YOU SEE ANY BRANTS, AT WHAT LOCATION AND WHEN. We would love to hear from you!
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Good Morning Gloucester 
Thanks for the great pics. I have never seen these geese before.
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Thank you Kay. They are beautiful in flight formation too. Hoping I can get a photo of that too while they are here visiting our shores.
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Kim, there is a flock of about 30 Brants at Light House Beach in Annisquam.
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Than you Zefra!! I am on my way to go photograph a piece, and hopefully they will be still be there when finished. So many thanks again for writing!!!
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Growing up in Gloucester in the 40s and 50s, we often saw hundreds of Brant but they began to dissaper in the late 1950s. It’s nice to see they are making a local comeback
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Thank you so much for writing Bill! Really great information. I wonder why the resurgence. Would be very interesting to learn more.
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Learning more about birds than I ever thought to know! Love the photos of the paddlers in the wave.
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Thanks Andrea–almost didn’t post as they were a little to far away for my 200mm lens, but am glad I did now that you said that. I think everything about migrations is so fascinating and we are so fortunate to live within the Atlantic flyway.
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Now these geese sure know how to take the waves and the shots are very good detail with seaweed rolling in the waves also thanks Kim Great shots and birds! 🙂 Dave & Kim 🙂
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I think I may have just spotted one in the water between the State Pier and Rose’s Marina.
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They’re here! See post tonight at 6pm Anonymous 🙂
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