Which geese can you legally shoot in the UK?

Ask most Guns which geese are quarry in Britain and you will get a confident answer that is very nearly right. The list is shorter than people think, it is not the same in every part of the UK, and it has changed within the past few years. Getting it wrong is not a technicality: shooting a protected goose is an offence under section 1 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, and misidentification is no defence.

The four quarry geese

Schedule 2 of the 1981 Act sets out the birds that may be killed or taken outside their close season. Four geese appear on it.

Canada goose, greylag and pink-footed are quarry throughout England, Wales and Scotland. Northern Ireland, which has its own legislation in the Wildlife (Northern Ireland) Order 1985, lists the same three.

The fourth is the white-fronted goose, and it comes with a restriction that catches people out. The schedule entry reads “in England and Wales only”. There is no open season for white-fronted geese anywhere in Scotland, nor in Northern Ireland. A bird you may lawfully shoot in Norfolk is fully protected on the Solway’s northern shore.

Why the white-fronted goose is different again

Even in England and Wales, only one of the two races is quarry.

The Greenland white-fronted goose was removed from the quarry list in England by the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 (Variation of Schedule 2) (England) Order 2020, and in Wales by the equivalent Welsh order, both taking effect in the spring of 2020. The change was made to meet obligations under the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds, and it followed years of voluntary restraint by BASC-affiliated clubs.

The practical position is that the European white-fronted goose remains quarry in England and Wales, and the Greenland race does not, anywhere. The two are separable in the hand and often in the field: Greenland birds have an orange bill and noticeably darker plumage, European birds a pink bill and paler tone. If you cannot tell, do not shoot.

Which geese are protected

Everything not on that list. In practice the ones you are most likely to meet are barnacle, brent and bean geese, and all three are fully protected.

Barnacle geese winter in large numbers on the Solway and in the Hebrides. Brent are a bird of the southern and eastern estuaries, and now number in the tens of thousands along those coasts. Bean geese are scarce, wintering mainly in Norfolk and near the Solway.

Rarer still, and equally protected, are snow, red-breasted and lesser white-fronted geese. Any of them can turn up in a skein of commoner birds, which is the argument for knowing them.

There are periodic calls to return brent to the quarry list on the grounds that numbers have recovered strongly since the low point of the 1950s. Whatever the merits, the law as it stands is unambiguous, and a brent goose in the bag is an offence.

Getting identification right

The two mistakes that matter both happen in poor light at the start or end of a flight.

The first is bean goose taken for pinkfoot. They are similar in size and silhouette, and in flight, with nothing to give you scale, the error is an easy one to make. It is also confined largely to Norfolk and the Solway, which is precisely where the bean geese are. If you shoot either area, learn the difference before the season rather than during it.

The second is barnacle mistaken for Canada. Both are black geese of the genus Branta, both have dark necks and white on the face, and a barnacle at distance in flat light can read as a small Canada. Barnacles are considerably smaller, with a white face rather than a white chinstrap.

The general rule on the marsh is the old one. If the bird is not certainly identified, it is not shot.

When you can shoot them

The open season for geese runs from 1 September to 31 January inland, and from 1 September to 20 February below the high-water mark of ordinary spring tides. Northern Ireland has no foreshore extension, so the season closes on 31 January.

Sundays are a separate question and vary by country. In Scotland, Canada, greylag and pink-footed geese may not be shot on Sundays or Christmas Day. In Northern Ireland, no goose may be shot on a Sunday, or at night. In England and Wales it depends on the county, and a number of pre-1981 orders survive.

Egyptian geese and close season control

The Egyptian goose is not on the quarry list and has no open season. It can, however, be controlled in England under general licences GL40 and GL42, which run from 1 January to 31 December 2026, and only by an authorised person for the specific purposes those licences set out. That is pest control, not sport, and the conditions are binding.

Canada geese sit on the same general licences, which is why they can lawfully be controlled outside the open season where genuine damage or a public safety problem exists. Again, the licence conditions do the work, and shooting Canada geese in February because they are on the list is not what those licences permit.

What to load

Lead is not an option for geese. In England and Wales, the 1999 and 2002 lead shot regulations prohibit lead for shooting geese anywhere, whatever the habitat. In Scotland and Northern Ireland the prohibition covers all shooting over wetlands.

For steel, No 1 or BB is the usual choice, and range discipline matters more than payload. A goose is a large, heavily feathered bird and a marginal pellet strike at 50 yards is how birds are lost rather than killed.

Check your gun is proofed for the load before the season. High performance steel requires steel shot proof and the fleur-de-lys mark, and the larger pellet sizes that suit geese are the ones most likely to fall into that category. BASC’s what-can-I-shoot guide is the place to check the quarry list before you go.