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Unusually, Iceland lies under a stationary high pressure system at the moment, which means that today was our second day of calm weather. This is great news, as telescopes are not buffeted by the wind, but easterly airflows to the south of us seem to be impeding migration. Black-tailed Godwit flocks here in Iceland are not growing in size as quickly as they have in recent years and western fields are still sparsely populated by Greenland White-fronted Geese. We have not yet seen a single Barnacle Goose.
As we have been travelling between our base just outside Reykjavik, areas in the southern lowlands and the peatlands of the west, we have not only been looking for godwits; geese have been high on the agenda too. One of our estuaries is already home to about eighty Brent Geese, dark geese which are really not that much bigger than Mallards, and we have spotted two wearing coloured rings engraved with letters. We will find out histories of their movements later.
These birds will fatten up on Zostera, a simple sea weed that grows on estuaries, in preparation for the next leg of their journey, across the mountains of Greenland and onwards to Canada. The vast majority of these Light-bellied Brent Geese are still in Ireland but there is a plan to catch some here next month and to add satellite transmitters. World on the Move listeners will then be able to monitor their migration.
None of today’s Black-tailed Godwit sightings involve birds that spend the winter in the British Isles. French and Portuguese birds still dominate. This all ties in with reports of large flocks of red, summer-plumage birds in places such as Cork in Ireland and Leighton Moss in Lancashire. They may be providing some great birdwatching highlights but can we have them up here, please?
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