The Brant Goose - Branta bernicla

Wednesday afternoon while I was driving past Washington Beach on Riviera Drive at the end of Washington Drive I saw some winter waterfowl.  I stopped to take a few quick shots when I recognized that they were a group of Brant ( Anseriformes, anatidae, Branta, bernicla), a type of ocean goose which over winters along the shores of Mastic Beach.  The Brant will end up spending the winter in mixed flocks of waterfowl  along the Narrows Bay, the creeks and Forge River until they migrate back to the Arctic Tundra where they breed in the summer.  It eats eel grass (Zostera marina) and the sea weed, sea lettuce (Ulva).

Branta bernicla

For more information go to:

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Brant/id

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brant_(goose)