Collard Greenland Whitefront

[6.5x55SE]

I shot this many years ago in Norfolk as mentioned in my write up

 

 

[panoma1]

Are you sure it was a GWF Boyd? I know the European Whitefront gets down your way.... but I wasn't aware the Greenland race travelled much further South and East than Ireland, West Wales and the Severn Estuary?

 

Paul.

[6.5x55SE]

100% GWF Paul if you read my One in a Million write up you will see where this goose had been as i sent the details in also over the Years i have shot a high number of BOTH GWF and EWF and a R/L at LWF defo know me Geese mate and when we had our last cold/Snow what 4yrs back !!!!! i shot both GWF and EWF in Norfolk and every years since ive chased geese GWF are seen and recorded where i shoot in Norfolk last season i had 17 on where i shoot but never shot one

[marsh man]

Lovely looking goose Boyd. did you find out how old it was ? . I always thought it took 2 to 3years to develop the black bars on there chest on the EWFs , would it be the same on the GWF. I shot my first White Front in the late 60s , one from a skein and over the years I got the odd one including a R + L but unfortunately one of them was a Pink , as the years rolled by I thought having shot a R + L at every thing else I was never going to achieve my ambition until about 5 or 6 years ago while flighting on a flooded marsh a small party of geese came in when it was nigh on dark and I have to admit I knew they were Grey geese but not what species , and I did manage a pair . I was convinced they were Pinks and it wasn't till me dog came back I could see the white blob round his beak and faint Black bars on its chest . I was keeping my fingers and everything else crossed the other one was the same and when my dog was a few feet away I could see that one had thick Black bars on its White chest and I then knew after a small gap of around 45yrs after getting my single one I had finally got my ambition.

[motty]

Shooting a whitefront is definitely on my 'to do' list.

[joknob]

got a right and left at some that stopped with us at grainthorpe a few years back,not had a chance since. craig

[Terry P]

Looking at going to America in a couple of years to get a whitefront, I have seen a few on the Dyfi but not allowed to shoot them there.

[derbyduck]

sharing a hide with my son inlaw we shot 4 whitefronts and a pink that was flying with them. dd

[SuperGoose75]

Lovely looking goose Boyd. did you find out how old it was ? . I always thought it took 2 to 3years to develop the black bars on there chest on the EWFs , would it be the same on the GWF.

 

 

Yes it does and also Young GWF's have yellow paddles for the first couple of years.

 

The latest findings is that they are not breeding until they are 6yrs old and not 3 as previously thought and may have something to do with their decline.

[anser2]

There are usually a handful of Greenland whitefronts in the Norfolk Pink flocks most winters , with Holkham being a favoured spot. Though that might be because the geese are easy to watch there so get noticed. We get a nice flock of European whitefronts too , but the GWF geese never seem to mix with them , they stay with the pinks they migrated south with.

[marsh man]

 

Yes it does and also Young GWF's have yellow paddles for the first couple of years.

 

The latest findings is that they are not breeding until they are 6yrs old and not 3 as previously thought and may have something to do with their decline.

Many thanks SuperGoose , any thing to do with there way of life I find fascinating . I had goose fever when I was a teenager and now im a old age pensioner its just as strong , maybe not the killing side but just being in there company is good enough for me..

 

Can you tell me what would be a good age for a EWF as I am sure my mate who had a collection of pinioned shot fowl had a White Front around 20yrs old , being in captivity might make a difference especially if people like Boyd are suffering with the dreaded fever.

[6.5x55SE]

Ha Ha John every time I'm out I ALWAYS look for Whitefronts. I've been known to pick a single out of several hundred apart from there call Wing shape is different !!!!! Fly slightly different and in general slightly smaller see John now you have got me letting out some of my secrets .Mind I do owe Robert a lot of credit and the time spent where he worked and his vast knowledge of Wildfowl.

[anser2]

I seem to remember a Greenland Whitefront in the BTO magazine reached 23 years. Back in the 1980s Brian Boneing in Stallham had a 32 year old greylag in captivity. Alas I suspect both Brian and the greylag are dead now.

 

Marshman was your friend with the old white front , Billy F by any chance.

[anser2]

God that was a long time ago Boyed that you used to join me at work at Pensthorpe where we had a large collection of wildfowl as well as wild geese on the reserve sometimes including a small group of whitefronts. I was talking to Jenny your goose girl ( she is not a girl these days ) last year and she has been mainly working with Black tailed godwits these days.

Edited October 11, 2014 by anser2

[6.5x55SE]

Very good times Robert with fond memories never to be forgotten. I often chuckle when I round a certain Bend in Norfolk as even now it reminds me of a Gale force wind a Moon soon to rise Me driving with Nigel Bryan and your Good self and as I was about to round the bend we met the SEA and people flashing lights. No wonder you don't like Moon fighting that night scarred you for life

[anser2]

That was a hell of a night. Its not so much that i do not like moon flighting its more that on my marsh its not been very productive for me. Most of the time the pinks seen to prefer to sit it out to dawn and flight in . They will sometimes use the moon , usually a day or two each side of the moon, but I have spent many dozens of freezing nights waiting for the geese to flight at moon rise and find I am still there 8 hours without having seen or heard a goose. Not like the old days on the Wash when given a glimmer of a moon and you knew that would flight no matter what. Having said that things are changing and in the last couple of years my pinks habbits are changing . Sugar beet does not hold the attraction it once did ( changes in the way of harvesting means little beet left after the harvest and fields are ploughed within a day or two of harvesting ). These days they are using stubbles and winter wheat a lot more than 20 years ago ( more like in the 1970s ) and the feeding will not be so rich as when feeding on sugar beet so perhaps they need the extra feeding the moon allows.

 

Though there several harvested beet fields in the area the geese i shot the other night under the moon were feeding on grass.

 

The other problem I have with moon flighting is that I am loseing my hearing these days and cant hear the geese very well. So its bad enough when you do not see many birds its worse when you cant even hear them so given the choice its a dawn flight for me.

Edited October 11, 2014 by anser2

[marsh man]

I seem to remember a Greenland Whitefront in the BTO magazine reached 23 years. Back in the 1980s Brian Boneing in Stallham had a 32 year old greylag in captivity. Alas I suspect both Brian and the greylag are dead now.

 

Marshman was your friend with the old white front , Billy F by any chance.

Morning Robert.......Thanks for the info about the ages ect. I think the last Canada Goose I shot might had been that old Greylag from Stalham with a fancy dress on for how tough it was , and no the mate I was talking about was Arthur P who died just over a week ago.....Kenzies double in more ways than one.

[anser2]

Hi Marshman , I met Aurthur a couple of times many years ago as he was a good friend on my rather excentric brother ,JB , but did not know he kept a collection of waterfowl. Billy who was chairman of GYWA had a very good collection of wildfowl in his back garden and so did I that I kept on my shooting pals farm at St Olaves. Apart from the pinioned birds we had free winged pink feet, barnacles , canadas , greylag , wigeon and pintail , plus we used to release several hundred mallard every year . The only problem was we dare not shoot any geese or duck execpt mallard on the farm for fear of shooting any of my tame ones. I will never forget one opening morning having the canada\barnacle flock drop into my duck decoys , to be later joined by 30 wild canadas and we dare not fire a shot.

 

When i moved up to N Norfolk the geese left the farm ( they were no longer fed ) and the barnacles settled on Fritton lake , which along with barnacles they later had when they started a collection at the hall and some from the otter trust formed the flock you now see in East Norfolk. I was amazed 6 or 7 years ago when I was invited to flight canadas on a friends shoot at Lound\Corton to see over 400 barnacles comming onto the stubble we were decoying.

Edited October 12, 2014 by anser2

[SuperGoose75]

Many thanks SuperGoose , any thing to do with there way of life I find fascinating . I had goose fever when I was a teenager and now im a old age pensioner its just as strong , maybe not the killing side but just being in there company is good enough for me..

 

Can you tell me what would be a good age for a EWF as I am sure my mate who had a collection of pinioned shot fowl had a White Front around 20yrs old , being in captivity might make a difference especially if people like Boyd are suffering with the dreaded fever.

 

No probs Marsh man' I am friendly With one of the leading men in the GWF project. He also says that Artic foxes on there breeding Grounds are a big problem.Also the Wild Canada's have took up residence on their breeding Grounds on the West coast of greenland. Although there is no real evidence of them having anything to do with their decline as far as I am aware.

 

I shot a couple by mistake a good few yrs ago whilst shooting under the moon.There was pinks in the area and I was after them and when they came in around 4 in the morning I took a right and left thinking they were pinks' but when the dog retrieved them they turned out to be GWF's.

 

I was after duck under the moon one December night When they started flighting in over my head and landing in a grass field behind me. There must have been 5 or 600 of hem feeding about 80 yards from me' and the noise of their strange buzzing will stay with me forever.I slipped away quitely and called it a night without firing any shots at duck for fear of disturbing them.I was happy and content i had just witnessed something Special' that not many people ever Do.

 

I dont have much experience With pinks as we only get a scattering of them each winter.i woundt have the same knowledge of them as Stalkerboydy or Anser2 but I find there call not that dissimilar to the gwf. Its very easy to distinguish them in good light by there shape 'Wingbeats ect but not so easy in the half light' when possibly there are only 70 or 80 pinkfeet flighting at the same time as a couple of thousand GWF's. They are a beautiful goose to watch both in Flight and while feeding. Especially the big old ones with the heavily barred breasts.

 

ref-the age' There is a bit in Norman Mursells book Come dawn 'come Dusk about shooting Whitefronts' where he mentions a friend of his who shot a greylag and only wingtipped and pinioned it and kept it in his collection.He had it 23yrs before it layed an egg..!!

 

Good to hear you still get pleasure from the geese after all the years. Once they get into your soul thats it' nothing like a Good women or the Wildgeese for keeping you Young Eh..

Edited October 12, 2014 by SuperGoose75

[widgeon man]

Very interesting These threads Boyd, thanks for posting up. Never had the opportunity on foreshore at white front, but I have shot a mctriple on GWF over decoys, and several single EWF inland, 1 on the Ouse washes. Never thought I would shoot more than 1 EWF so I had it set!.... Then shot 3 more that season, and that was 4 yrs ago too Boyd!

[marsh man]

Thanks "SuperGoose" ....A very good post with a lot of interesting facts in it , we have the opposite to you as far as numbers go with several thousand Pinks to a small amount of White Fronts and to confuse matters we do get a flock of Bean Geese staying in the area and mistakes can sometimes be made in rough conditions and bad light , and as far Bean Geese go I have made two mistakes myself over my shooting career , unfortunate but very easily done.

 

 

As far as a good woman go I have had the same one all my married life , that's why I can spend the rest of my teenage years and fitness chasing the Geese about

 

 

Hi "anser2".......I have been lucky and have shot Fritton Lake on quite a few morning flights , and when the wildfowl keeper left the number of Barnacle Geese just kept growing because nobody was there to control there numbers , like you say there was around 400 but now the collection of duck and geese are all but gone and we no longer see the "Barnies" in those sort of numbers.

[scolopax]

There was a unprecedented influx of both European Whitefront and Bean geese three seasons ago. Scotland's east coast had a lot and there were even a few hundred EWF around the Humber. I managed to accomplish quite a feat that season by not managing to even see one!!

 

I have seen three Whitefronts shot locally over the years, one by myself, all were Greenland. In fact they are the only three Whitefronts I have seen apart from those at Holkham.

[6.5x55SE]

Very interesting These threads Boyd, thanks for posting up. Never had the opportunity on foreshore at white front, but I have shot a mctriple on GWF over decoys, and several single EWF inland, 1 on the Ouse washes. Never thought I would shoot more than 1 EWF so I had it set!.... Then shot 3 more that season, and that was 4 yrs ago too Boyd!

My pleasure mate. Before the Whitefronts stopped coming to England in good numbers well unless we get the weather we had 3-4 seasons ago. Just before Christmas every year there used to be 100-350 EWF near the Ouse washes I chased my best Christmas/New Year was a 3 a 13 a 6 and 7 my young brother 7 one morning wit me my regular fowling mate had 1 a 5 a 5 and 3. The earliest I have shot a Whitefront was 5th October when i shot 3 to a R/L manylon years ago in Norfolk. Most years even now I find the odd small party to chase