Blogger: Rachael Murray, Media Officer
It’s traditionally used to follow friends, famous faces and current affairs, but this Autumn we are using Twitter to track the arrival of thousands of wintering geese. As part of a UK-wide initiative, the conservation charity is asking people in Norfolk to ‘tweet’ sightings or pictures of the birds using the hashtag #goosewatch.
Every year, as part of their migratory journey, hundreds of thousands of geese feed and roost on farmers’ fields and coastal estuaries in Norfolk. The most commonly sighted species across the county include the pink-footed goose, white fronted goose and the brent goose. In Norfolk, the appearance of pink-footed geese from around 09 September has traditionally heralded the start of Autumn in the wildlife world. The first birds make the thousand-mile flight from Iceland in early September, but the bulk of them do not arrive in Norfolk until October , when groups of a staggering 40k – 50k can be seen together in North Norfolk locations including RSPB Snettisham nature reserve. Brent Geese travel from Siberia, appearing a little later in the year, with first sightings in Norfolk usually from the end of September.
Reports of sightings in Scotland, the first of the RSPB regions to use Twitter in this way, are already coming in thick and fast through the social networking site. Reports of a large geese flock over the RSPB’s Loch of Strathbeg nature reserve on Friday morning kick-started the tweets. Last year, the reserve recorded one of the biggest flocks in the UK with up to 70,000 geese using the reserve as a night –time roost.
The arrival of the geese is very much a highlight of Norfolk’s wildlife calendar, and the first are due any day now. By using twitter to report sightings we can track their progress online and get an idea of where the large flocks are stopping across the country. So the more people who are watching the skies the better!
Our dear friend from head office, Emily Sanders, our Social Media Manager, says: “Twitter isn’t all about tracking your friends and celebrities, using it in this way will provide the RSPB with important information about the movements of our geese. And it’s testament to how much people love wildlife that they are squeezing in some tweets about this in amongst their updates on their daily lives. Our supporters are always telling us about the weird and wonderful sightings they are seeing in their gardens and further afield. It brings a whole new meaning to the term ‘tweet’ – although in this case it is more like a loud ‘honk!’”
Wintering geese traditionally start to arrive in mid September, with numbers reaching their peak in early Winter. We are inviting anyone with a Twitter account to share their goose sightings or pictures by using the #goosewatch hashtag. Those without a Twitter account can email sightings through goosewatch@rspb.org.uk.
Photo credit: Chris Gomersall (rspb-images.com)