The Greenland White-fronted Goose Anser albifrons flavirostris

Scotland, the wettest peat soils were so infertile
and waterlogged as to offer a last refuge for wildlife
at that time from a hungry human population.
Greenland Whitefronts were described as
numerous and widespread throughout the bogs
of Ireland (Ussher & Warren 1900), but extensive
drainage, started during 1845-1855, was thought
to have made the first impact on goose feeding
habitat, resulting in many geese being forced to
leave their traditional habitats (Ruttledge &
Ogilvie 1979).
Seasonally flooded grassland (such as the callows
of the Shannon Valley floodplain in Ireland) was
probably always of some importance as wintering
habitat for Greenland White-fronted Geese
(H.J. Wilson in litt.). During the 20th Century,
whether because of drainage and destruction of
their former natural habitats, or through their
discovery of the foraging opportunities offered
by low intensity agricultural grassland, Greenland
White-fronted Geese increasingly resorted
to rough pasture in Ireland and Scotland. Although
the geese may still utilise boglands and
peat systems for night-time roosts, there are few
flocks that continue to feed exclusively on natural
habitats throughout the winter (Norriss &
Wilson 1993, Fox et al. 1994a, MS14). The increasing
use of semi-natural grasslands apparently
accelerated in the latter half of the 20th Century,
when there was also an increase in the extent and
goose use of intensively managed farmland. Although
habitat destruction has been cited as the
cause of shifts in habitat use of this species (e.g.
Ruttledge & Ogilvie 1979), Norriss & Wilson
(1993) were strongly of the opinion that the movement
from semi-natural grasslands to more intensively
managed agricultural land coincided
with beneficial changes, rather than losses of traditional
habitats. They observed that goose use
of reseeded grasslands was typically opportunistic
within existing feeding areas, whilst longer
established, poorer quality habitats were abandoned.
Hence, in terms of responses to new feeding
opportunities provided by the dramatic rates
of changes in agriculture in the last 50-100 years,
the Greenland White-fronted Goose may have
shown greater flexibility in adapting to new
sources of food than might have been expected.
This adaptability was nowhere more dramatic
than in the vicinity of Wexford Harbour in SE Ireland.
At the beginning of the 20 th Century, the
Wexford Slobs were embanked and claimed for
agriculture from the intertidal waters of Wexford
Harbour. Whitefronts began using the newly created
large fields of rough grassland of the area,
so that by 1925, this was already the most important
Irish wintering site as it remains to the present
(Kennedy et al. 1954, MS14).
In Britain, the compilation of a historical picture
of the distribution and abundance of Greenland
White-fronted Geese in winter was complicated
by the occurrence of European White-fronted
Geese A. a. albifrons from Russian breeding areas
(which do not occur in Ireland). Since the subspecies
was only defined in 1948, it is not possible
to determine the breeding origins of Whitefronted
Goose wintering groups with certainty
before that time. The White-fronted Goose was
to be found in the late 19 th and early 20 th Century
in nearly all the haunts where flavirostris occurs
today (Berry 1939, Ruttledge & Ogilvie 1979). This
included Islay, identified as the principal haunt
for the species as long ago as 1892, supporting
“large flocks”, as well as Tiree, Coll and Jura
(Harvie-Browne & Buckley 1892). The species has
certainly been long established in Caithness and
Orkney (Harvie-Browne & Buckley 1887, 1891).
The only notable change appeared to be on the
Outer Hebrides, where the species was considered
rare until the late 1800s when it was reported
in markedly increasing numbers (Harvie-Browne
& Buckley 1888, Berry 1939). However, large numbers
have probably always passed over the Western
Isles on passage in spring and autumn, when
large numbers may temporarily also land, so their
fluctuating fortunes may have more to do with
the interpretation of such patterns than any dramatic
change in over-wintering abundance. Wintering
flocks of White-fronted Geese were also
known in the 19 th and early 20 th Centuries from
North Wales (Fox & Stroud 1985), Lancashire and
Westmoreland. All were associated with inundated
wetlands or former peatland areas. It is
highly probable, based on their reported habitat
use, that most of these would have been Greenland
birds.
As in Ireland, the use of traditional bogland habitats
for daytime feeding has become increasingly
rare amongst British-wintering flocks, as geese
forage increasingly on grasslands. The major concentrations
on Islay and Kintyre increasingly exploit
intensively managed agricultural grasslands,
even though they supplement their diet by
f0eeding on bogland roosts at night (MS24). Even
in Caithness, where geese still fed by day on the
Flow Country patterned mire peatlands until the
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