BRANT
Brants are like a smaller, short-necked versions of Canada Geese.
| Brant markings are similar to the Canada's Brants have black heads, necks (with the white band), Their undersides are light brown and their rumps are white. They run about 20 inches in length and have a 48 inch wing span. |
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Branta bernicla, is a small stocky coastal goose.
These migratory birds visit us in the winter and many days can be seem in Zach's Bay at Jones Beach.
The brant breeds in the high Arctic tundra of Alaska, Russia, and Canada.
It migrates south for winter to both North American coasts as far south as California in the west and the Carolinas in the east.
When brants migrate they don't fly in "v" formations like Canada geese or in straight lines like other geese, they fly in unorganized groups.
And, they are very loud when they migrate with their "cronk" sounds.
Brant adults build their nests in small indentations in marshy Arctic coastal areas.
In late June or early July the youngsters hatch and begin feeding on insects to gain strength for their first migration.
By mid-August they make their first flights.
In September they join other brants in shallow lagoons and bays to really fatten up on eelgrass.
Around the beginning of November they all take off together for their non-stop southern migration.
Their targets will be coves, bays, and estuaries with plenty of eelgrass to nourish them over the winter.
The southward migration could take up to 95 hours and the brants arrive minus about a third of their body weight.
The flight back north for brants begins in the middle of February.
Along the northbound migration they stop at estuaries along the way to feed and rest.
If they find a lagoon rich with eelgrass they may make a stopover for a few weeks before moving on to their nesting sites.
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The brant's primary food is eelgrass,
The brants that winter at Jones Beach
Brants don't dive for their food, |
On Long Island the brant hunting season is the same as the duck season, late November to late January.
One has to wonder if Jones Beach is favored by the brants for its no hunting regulation.
Hunting aside, the greatest danger to our brant population is degradation or loss of habitat caused by man or animal.
During my research on brant for the last newsletter I noted some interesting facts which fly in the face of my personal observations.
In one case I read that brant eat only eel grass and because of eel grass degradation and elimination there are concerns about their survival.
In another instance I read that brant may substitute only sea lettuce if eel grass is unavailable.
My observation has been that brant like the planted grass and weeds along the outer beach highways just fine.
The other printed fact that I gleaned was about their migration.
According to several sources, brant should have traveled north to southern Canada by April 1 and be in their breeding grounds, around Hudson Bay, by May 1.
By mid May 2003 the brant were still in and around the tidal wetlands of the Babylon Barrier Beaches and they were still enjoying the grass at Jones Beach.
On my drive from Gilgo to Wantagh on May 16, I spotted dozens north of Gilgo, another dozen on the median strip of Ocean Parkway and a hundred or so in Zach's Bay.
Early in May I had e-mailed Betty Conley, a wildlife rehabilitator and co-editor of The Beakly News, a "Free Newsletter of the AOL Birding Community",
to ask her and her readers why the brant were still hanging around.
Naturally, I was concerned that they might be taking a page from their cousins, Canada geese, and become permanent residents.
After a while, Betty replied, "I wonder if the brant left here are young ones and the older, breeding birds headed north on schedule.
They are finicky breeders from what I understand.
If spring is late a particular year, many won't breed at all that year.
There's no danger of the brant population becoming resident like the Canada Geese because back in the 1940's
the wildlife officials actually took eggs and baby Canada geese and raised them in cages, here, and released them to increase game for hunters.
These caged geese were the forefathers of the resident non-migratory population."
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