Saving wetlands for wildlife & people
Saving wetlands for wildlife & people
|
Waterbird MonitoringLatest NewsIntegrated Waterbird
MonitoringGoose & Swan Monitoring Capture & MarkingWeBSI-WeBSIndicators and Assessments SurveysAbundanceMute Swan CensusInternational Swan CensusIcelandic-breeding Goose CensusGreenland White-fronted Goose CensusNorthwest Scotland Greylag Goose SurveyScottish Greylag Goose SurveyUK-breeding Greylag Goose SurveyNaturalised Goose SurveyInternational Census of Greenland Barnacle GeeseAll Ireland Light-bellied Brent Goose CensusAge AssessmentPast SurveysGetting InvolvedResourcesFor FieldworkersFor Local OrganisersCUDIData RequestsSpecies AccountsMute SwanBewick's SwanWhooper SwanBean GoosePink-footed GooseGreater White-fronted GooseEuropeanGreenlandGreylag GooseIcelandNW ScotlandRe-establishedBarnacle GooseGreenlandSvalbardBrent GooseDark-belliedCanadian Light-belliedEast Atlantic Light-belliedNon-native SpeciesReports & NewslettersPartnersContact Us 
|
|
The Greenland population of Barnacle Goose breeds in northeastern Greenland. Migration begins in late August/early September, and birds use staging grounds in southeast Iceland. The geese begin to leave Iceland from late September and by
November they have all reached the British and Irish wintering grounds (Worden et al. in prep.) Ringing studies have shown that Greenland Barnacle Geese are very faithful to specific wintering sites, with 70% of birds returning to the same site during the following winter.
The islands off the west and north coasts of Scotland and Ireland (as well as several mainland sites) support the entire population during the winter. The main concentration is on the island of Islay, with 77% of the Scottish total occurring there in 2003. As numbers on Islay have steadily increased, some other key sites – notably Coll and Tiree (Inner Hebrides) and South Walls (Orkney) – have also become increasingly important, possibly as a result of an increase in intensively managed grasslands providing more favourable feeding habitat, as well as the establishment of Goose Management Schemes. Some smaller, uninhabited islands are now less used, possibly due to habitat changes possibly brought about by cessation of grazing. There have been some substantial changes in distribution since surveys began in 1957, when the population was equally divided between Islay, the rest of Scotland, and Ireland. Since then, numbers have increased on Islay, which in 1994 held 66.8% of the total population (Ogilvie et al. 1999) and 65% in 2003. Traditionally, saltmarshes, coastal pastures and islands were selected as favoured feeding areas, but more recently the requirement for short-cropped sward has been met by intensively managed grasslands. The geese feed on grasses, herbs, leaves, stolons and seeds, as well as barley and oat stubbles, spilt grain and undersown grass. Over recent years there has been an increase in the use of agricultural fields as feeding grounds. Most conflict occurs on Islay and several of the other inhabited islands off the north and west coast of Scotland. To alleviate these conflicts, Goose Management Schemes are now in operation on Islay and South Walls. Due to the inaccessibility of many of the wintering sites used by this population, aerial surveys are required to achieve complete coverage. Since 1957, International Censuses have been undertaken at approximately five-year intervals. Although long-term annual studies have been undertaken at Islay since the early 1950s, regular monitoring at other main wintering sites has only been established in more recent years. Ground counts are undertaken throughout Argyll through the SNH Greenland Goose census and RSPB co-ordinate at least two counts per winter on Tiree and Coll; all of these are co-ordinated with the annual international census of Greenland White-fronted Geese. SNH have also undertaken monthly monitoring on South Walls as part of the Greenland Barnacle Goose Refuge Scheme since the mid 1990s and data are also available through WeBS for some of the more accessible wintering sites.
|
||||||||||||||
Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust
Slimbridge, Gloucestershire GL2 7BT
T: +44 (0) 1453 891900 E: enquiries@wwt.org.uk
Registered Charity no. 1030884
© Copyright 2009 WWT
All images on this site remain the copyright of WWT or the photographers, and may not be reproduced without prior agreement.
