Last Wednesday, on day two of my Weymouth / Portland trip, by sheer chance, as I was walking along the disused railway track next to Hamm Beach, I just happened to be the first birder to spot the first two Pale-bellied Brent geese to return to Portland from their breeding grounds.

Portland Bird Observatory warden Martin later told me this first sighting had been on the exact same date, 23 September, as in 2025. Brent geese come in two sub-species, Pale-bellied (Branta bernicla hrota) and Dark-bellied (Branta bernicla bernicla). Martin says the Pale-bellied return to Portland first as they have a shorter distance to travel from their breeding grounds in northern Canada; the Dark-bellied Brents breed in the Russian Arctic. There’s not a lot of difference in their arrival dates though, as the first six Dark-bellied Brents were reported at Hamm Beach on 28 September, just five days after the two birds pictured here.

According to another local birder, these two Pale-bellied Brents are an adult and a juvenile. They look almost exactly the same to my inexperienced eye but I believe the juvenile (below) has less of a white collar than the adult (above).