05/07/16 - Geese release

Over the course of the last few months we have been in talks with York University, to try and find an effective way of dealing with their geese ‘situation’. After an ongoing problem the University applied for a licence to control the birds on site due to a public health concern, and a health and safety issue. Natural England were keen to find a novel approach to helping the University which involved catching them and releasing them onto the Ings. With the Uni being so close to the reserve in the Lower Derwent Valley, which is also an SPA, we needed to find a way to manage the population at the University without affecting the population on the Ings as we know birds move between both sites. Last week we received a call to say that the first group were ready to be collected, with c40 waiting, with another 40 ready a couple of days later - most of the first group were the young birds, with the adults following in the second catch. Both groups of birds were ringed and later released on to the River Derwent at North Duffield Carrs.

Aside from an hour spent transporting, ringing and releasing the geese, the rest of the day we were busy catching up on jobs with our fantastic band of volunteers from the East Coast. The morning involved carrying out repairs and improvements to the swan pipe at North Duffield following the damage caused to it by the winter floods. Coincidentally we also received news in the morning of a Wigeon ringed at the site in 2010, which was found in May this year, in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia, over 2250 km away – recoveries and information like this is exactly why we do this type of work. The afternoon was then spent strimming, hedge trimming and allen scything paths and over hanging bushes around Bank Island. At the end of the day we also managed to squeeze in ringing a brood of Kestrels at Bank Island – a feisty brood of five. Many thanks to the team for all their hard work, effort and enthusiasm.