Barnacle geese numbers are starting to build up as more birds have arrived from Svalbard just in time for last week’s Wild Goose Festival.
Prior to last week there was only a 2000 “Barnies” reported from our dedicated counters across the English and Scottish sides of the Solway.
However, the most recent counts have reported up to 30,000 barnacle geese now touched down in the UK; which are currently spread across the both sides of the Solway and Budle Bay in Northumberland.
Some of the geese are fitted with GPS trackers and we can see from this that some are currently pit spotting in Norway and once they have a favourable wind behind them they should join the rest of the goose gang soon.
To keep up-to-date with all the goosey goings on, you can find out more about he Svalbard barnacle geese here.
During last weeks festival, the team at WWT Caerlaverock hosted an event, “Goose Gander” where participants were guided through the reserve by one of WWT’s wardens who discussed how WWT manage the reserve for the thousands of barnacle geese and pink footed geese that migrate Dumfries & Galloway each winter.
Watch a short snippet of Goose Gander here: