This bird, AANW in our speak, where N stands for noir (black) was the first bird ringed at the series of catches at Dundrum, County Down, Northern Ireland in early February this year. These catches involved nearly 100 geese, and it is perhaps of interest that, whilst the vast majority of those have since been regularly re-sighted, generally around Dundrum, or at nearby Killough Harbour, this is the first ever record for this bird!
So, what is likely to become of this bird, which was in a flock of sixteen? It is comforting that the bird recorded from the Faroe Islands last spring, on 14 April 2017, H6WR, was subsequently recorded from Iceland a fortnight later, and this winter has been back in the Dublin area, which is its usual wintering site. So, hopefully AANW will be able to make a similar adjustment, in time to enable it to make the onward journey to the breeding grounds in High Arctic Canada. Our regular team who are poised to visit Iceland in a week's time will certainly be looking out for it!!
News at Dundrum today from David Nixon is that there are still around 50 geese present, including several birds marked at the same catch as AANW. Dundrum is regularly one of the latest sites in Ireland to hold brent geese in the spring, but even these are likely to have moved on to Iceland within the next week.
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