By Larry Griffin
Larry Griffin is a Senior Research Officer for WWT based at Caerlaverock. He leads WWT's study of the Greenland white-fronted goose population that winter on the Solway Firth, near WWT Caerlaverock, Dumfriesshire, Scotland.
- 16 Sep
Speedy's journey of endurance across the Greenland ice cap.
After what has been a long tense four days of waiting, we can now see that the Greenland white-fronted goose Speedy has made it across the ice cap.
An apt naming it may not have been for this journey has taken him almost a week! This has been quite an expedition over one of the wider parts of the ice cap, and from the GPS fixes it appears he may have walked a fair stretch of it. From the pressure charts over that period it seems he may well have had the wind and sometimes the rain/snow against him.
At a met station on the east coast winds of up to 30mph from ENE were being reported during this period, this will not have helped his progress. From the morning of 11th to morning of 15th he had only covered about 50 miles over the ice cap and it seems most of this he had walked. Such endurance from a goose is an incredible feat and in walking the last part of the route he has, through his GPS tag on his back, mapped the shape of the ice cap in that area in some detail, giving a cross-section from where he rested on the night of 11th at exactly 3000m, down the ice slope to 1773m by the night of 14th.
What was heartening to see was that he was able to complete the journey with a flourish achieving speeds of 75kmh on his way down to warmer coastal areas. What this journey will have taken out of him is anyone's guess, but hopefully he will still find good feeding on the east coast to allow him to complete the next 450km to Iceland!
Post a comment - 12 Sep
Worrying news about our Top Geese...but Speedy close to crossing the Greenland ice cap on his return migration
Update on our three Top Geese. Miles' tag stopped transmitting before the geese left Iceland during the Spring migration, but transmission has now also been lost from both GFG and Lightning after they made it to West Greenland for the breeding season. We don't know if one or all of the three have perished, or the transmitters are faulty or need better charging conditions, but we hope that some will return to Scotland this autumn with the rest of the Greenland White-fronted Geese.
However, overnight on 8/9 September, Greenland white-front Speedy began his attempt to cross the Greenland ice cap. By the night of 11th he had stopped on the ice cap just 70 miles from the west coast of Greenland. Progress has been fairly slow compared to his spring migration with many stops on the ice cap, and he has chosen a wider crossing point.
When flying he has had an average speed of 40kph at has reached a height of 2,600m. He has now descended to 900m having probably encountered some unfavourable weather and is currently walking across the ice. His tag is reading a temperature of -5 degrees. We will now have to wait four days to find out if he has completed this arduous journey.
Hopefully GFG will have made similar progress, and we may yet hear from his tag if he reaches better charging conditions in Iceland.
Post a comment - 11 Jun
With the breeding season under way, Speedy and GFG stick to their favoured areas.
For breeding white-fronts, clutches will have been started in the period from mid- to late May. However, all three of our tagged birds showed little sign of making a breeding attempt as May progressed. This was to be expected considering they were caught at Lock Ken as part of a "bachelor" group of six.
At the end of the first week of May, Lightning, further north of the other two, showed the most promise as his tag began to move very little. However it became apparent over the weeks that followed that there was a problem and that this bird had either shed its tag or had died - the values for the activity monitor on the tag becoming static.
With an expedition planned to a nearby area later this summer we may yet discover the fate of this bird and its tag. Over this same period GFG and Speedy have tended to overlap slightly in the marshy areas in which they are currently foraging, however GFG tends to roam over an area of about ten miles whereas Speedy tends to move just a few miles and his fixes are far more concentrated in the area in which he feeds.
Post a comment - 26 May
Greenland white-fronts take advantage of the thaw.
During the period between arrival and the onset of nesting, Lightning, GFG and Speedy will be feeding on the highly nutritious underground tubers of the tundra vegetation during almost 70% of their daytime activities.
Vigilant males in the solitary pairs enable the female geese to feed for maximum uninterrupted periods. The rhythm between feeding and night time roosting is probably determined by freeze/thaw cycles of the soil.
Post a comment - 12 May
Three Greenland White-fronts have made it to West Greenland, flying over the 1.5 mile high icecap!
Post a comment
Both Speedy and Lightening took roughly 9 hours to cross the icecap, both leaving West Greenland just after 13.00hrs on the 3rd of May and arriving at 22.00hrs. They left from different points on the West Greenland coast, Speedy from further north giving him what looks like a straighter crossing to their present position, Lightening took off from further to the south giving him a flight up the West coast when he got over the icecap. Speedy also took little time to rest after flying from Iceland and crossing Greenland.
Speedy and Lightening have now joined the GFG on West Greenland and it looks as though Speedy is now at the same location with Lightening just a bit north and east of their position.
The 3 geese have arrived at almost the same location on West Greenland, re-united after taking different routes on different days but probably taking advantage of the same weather conditions. - 6 May
Greenland white-fronted geese on the move - up and over the ice cap!
The Greenland white-fronted geese have started to leave Iceland for Greenland in the past few days, including two of our three 'Top Geese'.
GFG set off from Iceland on 1 May at 6am and flew to East Greenland, arriving at 11am the following day. He kept going and crossed the 1.5 mile high Greenland ice cap at an altitude of 3,000m arriving on the West coast of Greenland at 6pm. Then he flew north to his latest location in Western Greenland, arriving there at 8am on 3 May. He was still there last night.
Lightning is also on his way. He, too, left Iceland - possibly with GFG on the morning of 1 May - and arrived on the East coast of Greenland in just 29 hours. He seems to have stayed there till around 1pm the next day when it looks as though he made his start to cross the ice cap. Watch this space for further data on Lightning as we receive it!
Speedy left Iceland a day later on 2 May at 8am, arriving in East Greenland the next day at 7am - 23 hours! Speedy indeed! - slightly further to the north than GFG and Lightning. By lunchtime on 3 May, it also looks as though Speedy has headed west over the ice cap.
Worryingly, we have not heard from Miles recently. Hopefully this just means a fault with his transmitters, but we will keep you posted if we receive further data or sightings of him.
Post a comment - 25 Apr
Replenishing their fat reserves in Iceland
The Greenland white-fronts have now spent two weeks fattening up on the agricultural lowlands in south-west Iceland and so their fat reserves should nearly be replenished.
We might expect movement for these and the Barnacle geese if the high pressure exerts itself over Norway coupled with the low in the Atlantic, which together are creating a westerly airflow from Iceland to Greenland, whilst at the same time reducing the easterlies in the UK.
Post a comment - 18 Apr
Greenland white-fronts in Iceland
During the night of 7 April or early morning on 8 April, the Greenland white-fronted geese departed for Iceland from Loch Ken. The departure was surprising in that there was a gentle northerly wind throughout that day, and thus progress was relatively slow.
The tagged birds were spotted among 166 at Loch Ken on 6 April, a number which had declined to 89 on the morning of the 12th, with the last three birds seen on the 10 April - a rapid exit from the loch.
The tagged geese stayed together during migration, as they have all winter, and appear to have roosted on the sea 300km from Iceland on the evening of 8 April. On the morning of the 9th, the wind conditions were much more favourable and one of the 'Top Geese' - Lightning - achieved a speed of 126kph (over 70mph) with a tailwind.
The three arrived in the southern coastal lowlands of Iceland together at about 07:00 on 9 April, having completed the first 1,300km (800 miles) of their migration in about 30 hours. Speedy also completed his migration although he chose a site 30km further west along the coast.
Post a comment