News from Patricia Watson from Dublin today, that, just after lunchtime she had nine geese on the beach in front of Santa Sabina Manor. One of them was ringed, BIRR, a bird which had been caught as an adult in February last year at the Cadbury's Pitch and Putt Course in Coolock, Dublin. The amazing bit comes when she relates that BIRR was with an unringed mate and SEVEN juveniles!!!
If my memory (which is getting more befuddled every day!) is correct, I think the largest number of juveniles we have ever had with a ringed bird before was six, and even five goslings in a family is generally taken as being a good number.
This continues to give us some hope (although of course it comes with a strong caveat that we are at a very early stage of the autumn migration) that the breeding conditions, at least in part of the range in High Arctic Canada, may have been favourable. It will be another few weeks, when family groups normally arrive in numbers, before we can tell better...
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