North Saanich photographer Christy Grinton was surprised to see a few black Brant geese on Jan. 6 while she was at Island View Beach. 

B次元官网网址淎t first there were just three or four of them and then came more,B次元官网网址� Grinton said. B次元官网网址淚 have photographed them here before and up in Parksville.B次元官网网址� 

Brant can be distinguished from Canada geese by their smaller size, black head with jet-black eyes, white collar on their short necks, brown body, white patterns on their wings and a white triangle lining their tails.

As most bird lovers in Greater Victoria know, Brant geese usually arrive on Vancouver Island in the Parksville-Qualicum Beach area in late February although they donB次元官网网址檛 appear in large numbers until the end of March. Their arrival is a highly anticipated event on Vancouver Island, thereB次元官网网址檚 even a  in their honour that takes place every spring. 

But is January too early to see these migratory birds on the Island? Are the Brant on Island View Beach, early spring migrants? 

The Peninsula B次元官网网址 Review reached out to Nanaimo naturalist Guy Monty for answers.

"Is it too early to see the spring migrating Brant here? Yes." 

According to Monty, the timing of the presence of Brant in our area is frequently misunderstood by most people due to both short memories and some relatively recent changes.

He explains, up until the early 1900s, Brant wintered in the Salish Sea in large numbers but were hunted and sold in markets commercially on Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland. Their population further declined due to coastal developments, industrialization, the commercialization of Pacific herring and sports hunting.

By the 1950s, except for a small wintering population in Boundary Bay on the Lower Mainland, the wintering Brant population had essentially disappeared in the Salish Sea. Some wintered down the west coast of the United States into the Baja region of Mexico in less populated and developed areas that were relatively free of hunting. It is here the Brant population grew alongside the remaining survivors from the Salish Sea. 

For decades, Brant seen on Vancouver Island in the spring were birds travelling from Baja to the breeding ground in Alaska and the northernmost part of Canada. 

Monty adds that Brant researchers were unclear whether the small flocks of two to six birds that appeared on Vancouver Island in the early 2000s were a result of the early spring migration, the small wintering population in Boundary Bay searching for new wintering grounds, or a flock of old and injured geese that were unable to migrate. 

He said the number of Brant grew year after year and started returning to their old wintering ground from decades ago and as of winter 2024/2025, the total Brant population ranges from 750 to 1,500 in the Salish Sea outside the Lower Mainland.

"Rather than very early spring migrants, the Brant seen on southern Vancouver Island recently are almost certainly part of the rebounding wintering population," Monty said. 

"It was pretty cool to watch them fly in," Grinton said. "Sadly people were letting their dogs chase them which prevented them from foraging in the shallows. One woman even kept letting her dog run at them in the water so she could get a cellphone shot of them flying. It was horrible."

The photographer says keeping dogs on leash would help leave the Brant geese undisturbed while they're wintering on the Island.

Monty says Brant react negatively to dogs whether they are leashed or not. According to a Parksville-Qualicum research, if a Brant is disturbed, it will stop eating, focus on the perceived hazard and vocalize to the rest of the flock. The Brant will flush and fly if the threat comes too close, or they may decide it would be safer to go elsewhere.

This means the geese cannot feed while in flight and will instead burn calories at a significantly higher rate than they would if they were feeding. If they want to build up the fat reserves that are necessary for their migration and reproduction, they must feed continuously.

"If people care about continuing to have Brant in our area, the most important thing they can do is to stay off certain beaches and not bring their dogs to those beaches, especially during March and April," Monty said.