Editor: Here’s Nigel’s poser
Nigel Odin
Barnacle Goose (Branta leucopis) at Landguard Bird Observatory
- Does anyone know what’s going on? Barnacle Goose incidence at Landguard has risen rapidly. The first site record at Landguard was of 74 moving south on February 21st 1981, with only two more records of singles for the rest of that decade. In the 90s numbers were still low until a couple of gaggles of 28 south on February 28th 1999 and Barnacle Goose annual totals 1981-2013
800 700 600 500 400 300 200 100 1981
1986
10
1990
1992
1996
1999
2003
2005
Nature of observations Of the birds noted 75% are flying south and 24% north. Most records in August are of birds moving north. The bulk of records of larger gaggles are from late January to mid-March. Although May records are fairly numerous, their group size tends to be low, see below: Barnacle Goose monthly totals
900
0
38 south on 22nd August 1999. In the mid 00s numbers increased reaching an annual total of 846 in 2013.
2008
THE HAR R I ER – M a r ch 2 0 1 4
2011
2013
