The geese are arriving!
The Svalbard barnacle geese that visit the Solway each winter are on their way and some have already arrived!
The Svalbard barnacle geese that visit the Solway each winter are on their way and some have already arrived! We currently have 2,000 barnacle geese on the reserve but we are expecting more than 20,000!
The barnacle geese that spend the winter at WWT Caerlaverock breed in Svalbard (Spitzbergen), a remote island in the north of Norway. They nest at the top of cliffs, out of reach of the polar bears.This means that at only a couple of days old, the tiny chicks have to jump off the top and they bounce their way to the bottom to feed on the grass. It is a hazardous journey and not all of them make it. The ones that do survive then have to avoid the predatory arctic foxes. Following all these challenges, the barnacle geese families then make the 2,000 mile migration along the coastline of Norway, and across Eastern Europe before crossing the North Sea to reach the Solway in South West Scotland. The wind direction and strength is vital to their safe journey and we monitor the conditions daily, to check how they are likely to be faring. Any slight change in wind direction will quickly send them off course.
Safely at Caerlaverock they gather on the remote Solway mudflats at night and fly into the fields at Caerlaverock and in the surrounding area at dawn, in their thousands. Its not unusual for 20,000 birds to arrive on the reserve in October, before dispersing out around the Solway Firth.
There are always a few leucistic barnacle geese among the population. These white barnacle geese have been present since WWT first began to monitor the population in the 1940s and it is due to a recessive gene which has been passed down through the generations. Last year there were 8 leucistic birds amongst the total population of 40,000 barnacle geese.There have also been a couple of hybrid barnacle x snow geese present in the last few years. They look like barnacle geese but have a grey body and white neck.
Barnacle geese have a distinctive ‘yap yap’ call, which is multiplied by thousands when they all take off at once. This happens regularly during the day on the reserve and it is a fantastic experience
There is lots to look forward to in the coming months, with the arrival of the geese which are so iconic to South West Scotland and the Solway. We look forward to welcoming visitors, to show them this amazing spectacle of nature.
