I ddarllen y blog yma yn y Gymraeg, cliciwch yma os gwelwch yn dda.
On Sunday evening, she began the journey back home from the Dyfi. By 6pm the following evening, she arrived Hofn in Iceland.
Our commute to work can be a right average one, can’t it? Standing still in traffic on the A55, stuck behind a tractor on the A470 or being let down by a late train. Even if we walk or ride the bike to work, we might only pass one or two people; maybe Mrs Jones the neighbour or Mr Thomas who runs the local shop. Compare that to the commute of some Greenland white-fronted geese between wintering grounds, as they travel from the Dyfi Estuary in north Wales to Wexford in Ireland and back. They coast high above the Irish Sea, not a car or tractor in sight – just the odd chough or peregrine falcon holding up proceedings. Instead of nodding to Mrs Jones, they nod to a pod of harbour porpoises or bottlenosed dolphins, shining through the unforgiving crashing waves down below. Now that’s an interesting commute, don’t you agree?
Andy Hay, rspb-images.com
Greenland white-fronted geese, which are bigger than a mallard but smaller than a swan, have seen their global population fall at an alarming rate. But with fewer than 25 birds now wintering on the Dyfi Estuary, the Welsh wintering population is sadly declining at a faster rate than the global average - with an 83% decline in numbers since 1990.
However, thanks to new £24,000 worth of funding from Welsh Government, the Welsh Greenland white-fronted geese partnership* took crucial steps to change this in December 2016, as it oversaw a tagging process to discover where the geese were wintering. In doing so, the partnership was hoping to discover the birds’ seasonal movements and habits on and around the Dyfi Estuary. We hope to get around 18 months of data from the tags, which will allow time to discover their migration routes and where they’ll spend their time in Wales next autumn and winter.
Having successfully tagged 12 of the globally endangered geese – two with GPS tags and ten with neck collars – the data we discovered threw up some interesting scenarios.
This map shows their movements between wintering grounds on the Dyfi Estuary and Wexford.
A week after capture and tagging, one of the tagged birds and its mate left the Dyfi Estuary and moved to Wexford in south east Ireland; a known wintering site where 8,000 or so Greenland white fronted geese winter annually. This shows connectivity between wintering populations, and fluidity in movement between both. Potentially, this also shows that our Welsh Dyfi population is not isolated and might mean that the fall in numbers at the Dyfi Estuary over the past 20 years may not be a simple decline in numbers as first feared. This, in fact, gives slight hope that, providing the conditions are right, re-establishing a Dyfi Estuary wintering flock could be a possibility in the future.
Next up for the Greenland white-fronted geese is the long migration, of approximately 1,700 miles back to Greenland, where this iconic bird of outstanding stamina will see some beautiful scenery along the way. We’ve been eagerly awaiting the start of their journey over the last few weeks, and late on Sunday evening, one of our tagged geese duly delivered.
This map shows the journey undertaken late on Sunday evening from the Dyfi estuary to Hofn in Iceland.
She began the journey back home by leaving the Dyfi and flying over Anglesey. Astoundingly, she arrived Mull in Scotland at 4am, flew over Rum Natural Nature Reserve at 6am and then Stornaway at 7am. By 6pm the following evening, she was recorded as having arrived Hofn in Iceland where she will now stage with fellow Greenland white-fronted geese for the next few weeks. The commute will then be completed when they arrive back home in Greenland.
We hope the vital information we discover along the way will continue to help us safeguard our precious wintering population - not only in Wales but further afield – and also help the Greenland white-fronted geese thrive once again in the future.
For more information regarding the Greenland white-fronted geese partnership’s crucial conservation work, please contact cymru@rspb.org.uk.
* Alongside RSPB Cymru, the partnership includes Welsh Government, The Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust, Mick Green, Natural Resources Wales, The British Association for Shooting & Conservation and the Dyfi, Mawddach and Dysynni Wildfowlers Association.