Barnacle geese reach new highs

A record number of barnacle geese have been recorded at an RSPB reserve in Scotland this autumn.

Rising from a peak count of 10,035 last year to 11,070 this October, the numbers are a great sign the population of the species is continuing to recover in Solway.

Monitored at the Mersehead reserve in Dumfries and Galloway, numbers of the bird reached a low point of around 400 birds just after the Second World War.

The black and white birds return to the site every year, the sound of their call – often likened to that of a dog barking – an annual marker of the beginning of autumn.

The birds winter at sites around the Solway, before returning to their Arctic breeding grounds in Svalbard – a Norwegian archipelago between mainland Norway and the North Pole – in the spring.