Record-breaking numbers of pink-footed geese on Solway Firth

December 2010: Bird-watchers were treated to the awe-inspiring sight of at least 42,500 pink-footed geese coming off roosts off Caerlaverock Wetland Centre in Dumfriesshire, Scotland in just one hour, shattering previous records.

FLY PAST: Skein of pink-footed geese. Picture: Graham Catley, Nyctea Ltd

It is thought that the unprecedented numbers are due to birds moving away from roosts in the north west of Scotland as the snow and cold weather continues.

WWT's Dr Larry Griffin was at Caerlaverock on the Solway coast at dawn on Sunday morning. He said: ‘The sky was full of skeins of geese for a full hour, coming off their roosts on the mudflats and flying up the River Nith. Having called some of the other goose counters who were out, we can safely say there were at least 42,500. The highest count in the past 20 years was 30,000 and numbers of between 1,000 and 5,000 being more usual.

There could be more than 50,000

‘This is only one section and I'm guessing numbers of pink-feet across the estuary could be more than 50,000. It's likely they've come west from the Moray Firth, Vane Farm and Slamannan Plateau as the snow has covered over the fields, making it impossible for them to feed.'

Dr Griffin and his colleagues were out counting the geese as part of regular waterbird monitoring. Monitoring wildlife is crucial in spotting conservation problems and channelling money and effort to where it is most needed.

WWT Caerlaverock Wetland Centre is most famous for the Svalbard barnacle geese which migrate their each winter. In the 1940s numbers of Svalbard barnacle geese were as low as 300 individuals and, thanks to efforts by conservationists in the UK and Norway, have now reached more than 30,000.