In Search of Barnacle & Pink Footed Geese in Southern Scotland

Our First Encounter

I had a five day treat in Dunfries and Galloway towards the end of October. My main purpose was to make a visit to Caerlaverock WWT centre but the Solway Firth offered much more than that, particularly due to the warm hospitality of my friends Scott and Linda. The visit was obviously arranged to aide my AS level course in Art and Craft where my interest in birds is a central theme in my work

Our search for barnacle and pink footed geese began on Sunday evening towards sundown at Castle Corner Caerlaverock a point that gives expansive views across the Solway Firth to the lake district and the highest peak of Skidaw. Moving round to the coast we could clearly see a land mass which we were informed by a wildfowl er that it was the Isle of Man to the hill of Sciffel (seen above) and in the bay in the foreground the River Nith joins the Solway as it flows south from Dumfries. WWT staff had told us this would be a good place to see these birds as the sunset, both fly out to the Solway, so we arrived full of anticipation and the air was a lot colder than that which I had been experiencing recently.

During our wait we met to contrasting characters who both had interests in the birds for different reasons! The first said he had been to the WWT centre and went on to inform us "you know you are following in the steps of Jesus" as he made reference to Matthew 4 where he instructed his followers to look how his Father cares for the birds of the air. Shortly after his departure we were joined by a man who refer ed to himself as a wildfowl er (being an urbanity I was not so familiar with such characters!) but he said "the pink foots should come from the right down the river Nith, but they may not tonight, as it was a full moon, in fact the hunters Moon in October and they may stay on the fields all night".

Sometime later we spotted s line of birds coming down as can be seen in the middle of the picture above. Could it be the pink foots? Well we had expected the geese to be much closer but maybe in fact it was the pink foots flying through!!

The wildfowler seemed little amuzed by us, I guess as far he was concerned the protection order put on the Barnicale Geese was nothing more than a spoiler on his sport!

But he continued as he got onto the subject of seeing the Barnacle Geese when he said "as long as you stay late enough you will see the Barnacles, you may need to say until it is really dark, but you will hear them long before they arrive" he commented and went on to say "they sound like a pack of terriers" another analogy from his hunting his experiences!!

We certainly had to wait a while .... but hey we had to agree with the Wildfowl er ... we were so glad to hear the sound of the approaching birds ... they certainly were loud in the the now quite dark evening .... and as they passed by someway up passing from above the woods to the Solway it was so quick ... it was over in a shot as the birds passed over in a long string across the night sky towards the waters of the Solway. But it had been one of those rich encounters that only nature offers, without man made affects or animation, and we were both glad to get back into the car and head home for a warm meal!

On our route home we saw a more familar sight, that of a Grey Heron and can you also spot the wader in the foreground on the bamks of the River Nith as we head towards Dumfries.

A visit to WWT Caerlaverock and its conservation work with Barnacle Geese

The WWT have done much work at the centre to protect these birds. The birds migrate between Svalbard, which is closer to the North Pole than the Solway is to Brighton and the Solway each year. Due to unprotected shooting the birds numbers were down to 300 in 1948 but had have increased to 27000in 2006 due the ban on hunting and the Caerlaverlock centre established in 1973.

Barnacle Geese also migrate between the Isle of Islay and Greenland and Northern Holland and Siberia.

My chief desire was to see the Barnacle Geese on visiting the Caerlaverock WWT centre, but its setting the layout of the hides and the clear visibility made our afternoon quite action packed.

Here I will concentrate on bringing some sights of the Barnacles.

We were in time to see the afternoon feed at the Peter Scott hide and as this ended, the Barnacles took to the skies:

the Barnacles from the Peter Scott Hide

Striding down to the second hide to the east we were then able to get some great shots of the birds as they grazed and flew from pasture to pasture in small numbers.

We returned towards the entrance and a gentleman approached us and told us of a very small hidden hide where he informed us we would get very close up views of the geese (see above right). We also able to see the following sequence:

Suddenly all the birds were very alert all rigid and facing in open direction (towards Skidaw). Not sure if this was due to a predator being spotted or if this was signal that was initiated by the flock!

The flock take off on mass, with Skidaw and the Lake District forming the black drop.

Here is my impression of the Barnacle geese flying into join the flock at this site minutes earlier.

So as far as seeing the Pink Footed Geese the closest we came to see them was within the flock of Barnacle Geese.

This was despite making a detour from Lochmaben along the lanes to Annan having been told by some birdwatchers they were to be seen in the fields on this route.

Coming up meet some of the other birds spotted during this visit to Dumfries and Galloway.

Life in Roath Park

This week has seen the first sightings of Pochard and tufted duck which winter on the lake