Gathering in a flock numbering more than 100, Brant geese were conversing and dining along the north edge of the bay at Ediz Hook across from the port town of Port Angeles, Washington.  Brant geese spend most of the year in flocks.

Brant pairs are socially monogamous.  I may have been witnessing the formation of pairs, as the pairs typically form in their second year on their wintering grounds. I may have also been seeing the young from the previous summer as they migrate together as a family and the young stay with their parents as a family unit even within much larger flocks.

Brant geese winter on lagoons, estuaries, mudflats, and saltmarshes near sand spits, barrier beaches, and ocean shores. Their diet relies extensively on eelgrass, where available, and large green algae. Being a resourceful bird, they will bring the grasses to the surfaces so to have available food during high tide.



















No other geese nest as far north as the Brant, and few migrate as far.  Traveling between their summer and winter outposts, they may fly at altitudes of several thousand feet as they cross great expanses of land or open ocean. 90% of the Black Brant population overwinters in the Baja Peninsula and then journey 3000 miles to the Alaskan nesting grounds. They are one of three races of Brant. The Black Brants can also winter over in Washington along with the  Grey-bellied Brant, numbering only about 8,000, most of whom winter in Washington's Skagit County and nest in the Canadian high Arctic.   

On their nesting grounds 3-5 eggs are laid and incubated by the female. Chicks hatch and leave the nest in 1- 2 days. They are tended by both parents and led to feeding areas, where young find their own food. In the long daylight of the high Arctic, the young feed at all hours and develop rapidly, fledging at 40-50 days and traveling with their parents to the wintering ground.