Pale Bellied Brents

There have been  40 - 50 Brents around this winter commuting between The Gann and Angle Bay. Several observers, including myself, have spotted a ringed individual - U3WR - and this has prompted  Graham McElwaine the Re-sightings Co-ordinator for the Irish Brent Goose Research Group to get in touch with some fascinating information on this population of Brents as follows:-

"These pale-bellied brent are from the ECHA (East Canadian High Arctic) flyway population. They breed very far north in Canada, and overwinter mainly in Ireland, although some birds, like yours, also go to western and southern GB, the Channel Islands and France (mainly Normandy). They stage for a considerable period in spring and autumn in Iceland, and have a hazardous trip over the Greenland Icecap in between. The current flyway population is of the order of 38 - 40,000 birds.

Our current ringing programme commenced in 2001. We ring mainly by canon-netting here in Ireland, and on the spring migration in Iceland in May. Two expeditions have been mounted to catch birds in Canada, in 2007 and 2014. On both occasions, just under 200 birds were caught whilst flightless (herded by helicopter!!). Overall we have now caught just over 4,900 individual geese, so it is well worthwhile checking out any flocks you might come across for leg-rings. Currently resightings are reaching well over 10,000 records per year from the wintering grounds, and a further up to 5,000 from Iceland in spring and autumn."

As Graham says please keep an eye out for any leg rings and email the info into the blog so we can pass details onto Graham.

Follow the links on the right for interesting local ringing news from the Teifi Ringing and Pembrokeshire Ringing groups.