Join Our Mad Professor Brent

Join our mad Professor Brent for a fun filled afternoon of activities on Saturday 13th and Sunday 14th October. Travel with Professor Brent from Northern Ireland to Iceland and then on to Greenland before settling in the Canadian Arctic as we follow the miraculous migratory journey of our Light-Bellied Brent Geese. Discover their strange eating habits, the perils that face them, and what they get up to in the land of snow and polar bears. Activities start at 2pm and 3.30pm sharp.

Did you know that 90% of the world’s population of Light-bellied Brent Geese come to Strangford every Autumn. While they are here they feed on the vast expanses of eel grass exposed at low water along the muddy estuaries. Every year when the spring arrives these same small geese take on the largest migration journey of any goose travelling 2,900 miles from Ireland to the high Canadian arctic. On the way there, and on the way back, they normally have to stop in western Iceland for a few weeks to replenish their dangerously depleted fat reserves.

At the moment there are currently around 16,000 birds on Strangford Lough, feeding up after this long and hazardous journey. Visitors may be able to witness around 2000-3000 of these incredible migrants from the Limekiln Observatory and Brent Hide when they visit WWT Castle Espie Wetland Centre.

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