Brent geese take top place in Solent wildlife study
Dark-bellied brent geese have scooped the top spot in this year’s Great Solent Birdwatch count with nearly 5,000 spotted by volunteers taking part. Almost 100 different bird species were seen during the two-week event in October this year, including 12 which are red-listed in this country for conservation concern.
Now in its fifth year, this annual research programme has once again highlighted the worldwide importance for the Solent area for birds. More than half of the birds topping the charts in the study are winter visitors to the local coastline from far flung northern destinations.
These include brent geese from Siberia, dunlins from Scandinavia and Russia, wigeons from Iceland, Russia and Ukraine, and turnstones from Greenland, Lapland and Canada. These migratory birds arrive on our shores tired and hungry and need to stock up on vital energy resources by feeding and resting along the Solent’s coastal mudflats and saltmarshes.
The Great Coastal Birdwatch is an annual wildlife event headed-up by wildlife organisation Bird Aware Solent. It aims to raise the public’s awareness of birds that spend the winter on our coastline.
Other birds hitting the high numbers include more than 4,000 black-headed gulls, 1,600 wigeon ducks, and almost 1,500 oystercatchers. Rarer sightings include 5 white-tailed eagles, which have been reintroduced to the Isle of Wight over the last few years, whimbrels and ospreys.
During the research project, which took place over two weeks in October and November this year, members of the public reported on what birds they saw during a one hour birdwatch anywhere on the Solent coast.
In terms of the highest numbers of birds seen, dark-bellied brent geese topped the list, followed by black-headed gulls, wigeons, oystercatchers, Canada geese, black-tailed godwits, dunlins, redshanks, mallard ducks, herring gulls, lapwings, cormorants, teal ducks, mute swans and turnstones.
Red-listed species spotted during the birdwatch include: black-tailed godwits, curlews, dunlins, goldeneyes, herring gulls, lapwings, a merlin, a pochard duck, ringed plovers, a common scoter, skylarks, and a whimbrel.
Dark-bellied brent geese are much loved winter visitors to the Solent with 10 percent of the entire global population visiting the area during the colder months. The birds fly over two thousand miles in family groups to get here from Siberia in Russia.
