Avian Influenza Update
The Wild Goose Festival is back for yet another year celebrating the geese that spend their winters in Dumfries and Galloway and our connection to them.
This year, the WWT Caerlaverock team is particularly excited to be dedicating this week to these fantastic birds because after their population being decimated by Avian Influenza (AI) in the winter of 2021/22, the Svalbard barnacle geese are making a comeback! They have had two really successful breeding seasons and their population has been steadily recovering. The hope is that this year, their numbers will have reached pre-AI levels and possibly have exceeded them.
It is incredibly encouraging to see how nature can recover in its own time. If you want to get a load of the barnacle goose action, the Wild Goose Festival is the being held from the 18th to 27th of October 2024. Click here to see all the events at Caerlaverock and here for the Wild Goose Festival Website.
Words by Marianne Nicholson
Picture of barnacle geese by Alex Hillier
