THE HOLLINGWORTH GREENLAND WHITE-FRONTS- AN OVERVIEW OF THEIR REMARKABLE SAGA

PART 2

By Simon Hitchen and Ian McKerchar

Where to find your White-fronts

Akzo Pond, a wintering White-front's wonderland! (Photo by Simon Hitchen)

The White-fronts tend to range widely around the Littleborough area, often associating with Canada Geese and predicting where they will be at any given time is difficult, however, early afternoon tends to be the best chance of them being at Akzo Pond and they sometimes roost at Hollingworth Lake. Occasionally they are seen flying over to the east of Littleborough and they have also visited Ogden Reservoir and Watergrove Reservoir from time to time.

If it is not possible to see the Canada Goose flock from the road at Akzo Pond, you can walk through the Hawthorn hedge alongside the old Akzo chemicals works to view fields further north that aren't readily visible. It is however, if doing this, important to take care not to disturb the Geese.

Individual belly markings

With our current knowledge, it appears that the black belly markings ('belly bars') on the majority of White-fronted Geese do not alter significantly with age or moult and so it may be possible, in our case atleast, to determine if some of the individuals occurring in the Littleborough area are returning birds or not, as long as their belly markings are appreciatively dissimilar.

Compare below the images of Greenland White-fronts taken at Hollingworth Lake/Akzo Pond, taking particular note of the dark belly markings.

Adult Greenland White-fronted Goose, Akzo Pond, 25.11.04. Notice that there are only really 2 obvious 'belly bars' continuing up onto the flanks. (Photo by Simon Hitchen)

The same bird/location/date as above, with the two 'belly bars' obvious, notice however how the different angle and posture of the bird (not to mention Simon's shaky hand!) has altered the appearance of the 'belly bars' slightly. (Photo by Simon Hitchen)

Adult Greenland White-fronted Goose, Akzo Pond, 02.11.06. Notice here the 3 obvious 'belly bars', clearly a different individual to the 2004. (Photo by Rob Adderley)

Summary

Quite why they chose the Littleborough area to become one of England's only regular wintering sites of Greenland White-fronted Goose is anyone's guess (admittedly it is a rather pleasant area), although we have speculated that those 2 immatures in 1991 were 'lost' birds that associated with the increasingly large Canada Goose flock in the area, similar to the occasional 'lost' Pink-feet that have done similar at sites within Greater Manchester in more recent years. These immatures are likely to have found the unimproved marginal pasture encountered in the Littleborough area similar to their natural winter quarters and it is they or their descendants that have been those occasional winter birds since, while it is entirely feasible that the ringed bird in Wexford 1993/4 (D1H) was actually one of these immatures from 1991 as there were, intriguingly, no sightings from Hollingworth Lake in the winter 1993/4.

Either way their remarkable saga is undoubtedly a significant occurrence and long may their dynasty continue, although the recent status of Greenland White-fronted Goose appears to be in somewhat of a catastrophic decline. Since a population explosion in the early nineties it has been speculated that their steady decline in breeding success is due to the arrival of Greater Canada Geese as a breeding species in Greenland which are out-competing the White-fronts as a breeding species. Should this continue, it does not bode well for the future of Hollingworth as a wintering site for the species.

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Judith Smith and especially Malcolm Ogilvie for assisting with information regarding the belly markings of White-fronted Geese and Rob Adderley and Ian Kimber for the utilisation of their photos.

References

The Greater Manchester County Bird Report, 1984, 1987, 1990-2005

British Birds (May 2006 - 99: 242-261)

Simon Hitchen and Ian McKerchar, November 2006.

CLICK HERE TO RETURN TO PAGE 1 OF THE HOLLINGWORTH WHITE-FRONTS SAGA

BACK TO SPECIES STUDY HOMEPAGE

BACK TO MANCHESTER BIRDING HOMEPAGE