AS you walk along the Naze beach you will have spotted and heard lots of large, dark coloured geese around the shoreline.

They are dark-bellied brent geese currently arriving from their breeding grounds in Arctic Russia and they will spend the winter feeding along the Essex coastline, including Hamford Water which is an internationally important site for migrating birds.

The body of the dark-bellied goose is fairly uniformly dark grey-brown all over, the flanks and belly not significantly paler than the back. The head and neck are black, with a small white patch on either side of the neck.

It has been estimated that a quarter of the world’s population of dark-bellied brent geese spends winter here at the Naze.

The brent goose doesn't breed in the UK and only has about 100 days in the Arctic in order to rear a family, so bad weather or an early winter can have an impact on numbers.

Families migrate together and remain together until the following breeding season.

The geese have one of the most energetically costly migrations of any waterfowl species, travelling the 8,000km between breeding and wintering grounds, sometimes flying non-stop for 3,000km.

Brent geese fly in V formation which helps the flock to make better progress.

The front bird breaks up the wall of air that the flock flies into. This leaves a wake of swirling air behind, which helps give a lift to the next bird along.

Scientists have shown that birds in V formation can fly 70 per cent further than one bird flying alone. Over the next few weeks, other winter visitors to Essex will arrive in droves. As well as brent geese, numbers of waders and ducks are rising and soon thousands of winter thrushes – redwings and fieldfares – will descend on Essex from Scandinavia.

A few of our most spectacular winter visitors – short-eared owls – may soon be spotted.

Large numbers of knot and dunlin are already making an appearance near the lagoon at the bottom of the Naze and sanderling and ringed plover can be seen in front of the tidal salt marsh.

The Naze Centre is gearing up for the festive season with Christmas craft sessions for children on December 21 and 22 between 10am and 3pm.

Call 01255 6798379 or check facebook.com/EWTNaze for more details.