GREENLAND BARNACLE GEESE BRANTA LEUCOPSIS IN BRITAIN AND IRELAND: RESULTS OF THE INTERNATIONAL CENSUS, SPRING 2008 WWT Report Authors Carl Mitchell 1, Alyn Walsh 2, Colette Hall 1 & Olivia Crowe 3 June 2008 1 WWT, Slimbridge, Gloucester, GL2 7BT, UK 2 National Parks and Wildlife Service, Wexford Wildfowl Reserve, Co. Wexford, Ireland 3 Birdwatch Ireland, P.O. Box 12, Greystones, Co. Wicklow, Ireland Published by: Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust Slimbridge Gloucestershire GL2 7BT T 01453 891900 F 01453 891901 E
[email protected] Reg. charity no. 1030884 © Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust All rights reserved. No part of this document may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of WWT. This publication should be cited as: Mitchell, C, A Walsh, C Hall & O Crowe. 2008. Greenland Barnacle Geese Branta leucopsis in Britain and Ireland: results of the international census, spring 2008. Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust, Slimbridge. ii CONTENTS Summary iv 1 Introduction 1 2 Methods 2 3 Results 3 4 Discussion 8 4.1 Census total and accuracy 8 4.2 Long-term trend and distribution 8 4.3 Internationally and nationally important sites 12 4.4 Recommendations 20 5 Acknowledgements 22 6 References 23 Appendix 1. Sites with nil Barnacle Geese during March 2008 census. 24 WWT Research Report iii Mitchell et al. 2008 SUMMARY Between 1959 and 2008, twelve full international surveys of the Greenland population of Barnacle Goose have been conducted at wintering sites in Ireland and Scotland using a combination of aerial survey and ground counts.