Hallig Hooge.
“Goose far outside” – such titled tours and mudflat hikes are intended to attract those interested to the Brent Goose Days.
A festival especially for brent geese – the idea is more than 30 years old and comes from Vancouver Island in Canada. Since 1998, migratory birds have also been in the Schleswig-Holstein Wadden Sea ring goose days dedicated, the 23rd edition of which begins this Saturday and lasts until May 14th.
The last corona restrictions are now history. In 2020 and 2021, the brent goose days were completely canceled due to the pandemic.
To start with, the “Golden Brent Goose Feather” will be awarded to a person who works to protect these animals and their habitat on Saturday afternoon on Hallig Hooge. Environment Minister Tobias Goldschmidt (Greens) has also announced that he will be opening. More than a hundred events are on the program.
Feeding stop in the Wadden Sea
Up to 80,000 dark-bellied brant geese (Branta bernicla bernicla) make a feeding stop in spring on the North Frisian Halligen and the surrounding mudflats on the way from their wintering grounds to their breeding grounds on the Siberian Arctic coast. Around May 20th we continue there.
According to the organizers, the Brent Goose Days are a joint project of nature conservation and sustainable tourism. For Goldschmidt, they are a beacon project in this respect. In addition to the brent geese, the aim is to make the Halligen biosphere and the Wadden Sea National Park even better known. You belong to the organizers like the environmental protection associations Nabu, Schutzstation Wattenmeer, Verein Jordsand and WWF.
Energy requirements of brent geese
Brent geese eat saline grasses and herbs on the salt marshes in front of the dykes and on the Halligen. With the help of glands, they can excrete the salt, which would be poisonous to them in large quantities. Brent geese need a lot of energy to fly the up to 5,000 kilometers to their breeding grounds in Siberia. They need about eight grams of fat per 100 kilometers of flight. In order to gain 200 grams of fat, they have to eat at least nine kilograms of grass, according to a leaflet from the national park administration. (dpa)
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