As winter arrives, what future for our rarest goose?

Greenland White-fronted Geese (Mark Eaton)

With the autumn pulse of migration over, much of what is seen in North Wales over coming months will depend on weather conditions across northern Europe. A brief stop at Llyn Trawsfynydd en route to the Welsh Ornithological Society (WOS) annual conference was my first encounter this winter with large numbers of Fieldfares, while a couple of Scaup fed on the reservoir among similar but smaller Tufted Ducks. Both signs of the year turning.

Scarce visitors elsewhere included Curlew Sandpiper and Spotted Redshank at RSPB Conwy, a Spoonbill up the Conwy estuary and Snow Bunting on the Great Orme. Autumn’s Yellow-browed Warbler passage dribbled to an end with singles near Pwllheli and, unusually, inland at Betws-y-coed. Evidence of proper winter came with the first half dozen Purple Sandpipers at Rhos Point, back from a summer in western Greenland. From the same area came small groups of White-fronted Geese flying past Pen Llŷn and Bardsey, heading for the Dyfi estuary or the Irish Republic. A paper in the journal British Birds reports the global population of Greenland White-fronted Geese has fallen 58% in 25 years, with repeated spring snowfall the most plausible explanation of breeding failure. The problem in their northern breeding areas is localised cooling, a vivid example of the challenge posed to migratory birds of the differential chaos of a changing climate.

Weekend storms brought a handful of Pomarine Skuas and Little Gulls to our coasts, Leach’s Petrel past Rhos Point and Sooty Shearwaters off Bardsey, Porth Ysgaden and the Great Orme. While many hundreds of Great and Cory’s Shearwaters passed Pembrokeshire, one of each past Tonfanau were the sole reports in North Wales. Late Sandwich and Arctic Terns were seen from watchpoints around Anglesey with a Common Tern off Rhos Point; a Long-tailed Duck is on Shotwick Lake.

The weekend’s excellent WOS Conference encouraged delegates to use their skills to help monitor birds in Wales and celebrated the efforts of many who do, including several from North Wales. Geoff Gibbs from Llanfairfechan was given the coveted Lifetime Achievement Award; Dave Parry from Denbighshire won a week at Bardsey Bird Observatory for his image of a Cuckoo chick on Mynydd Hiraethog being fed by a Meadow Pipit; Coleg Cambria student, Daniel Gorton from Rhyl, won the Young Photographer of the Year for his shot of a Snow Bunting, which featured in BirdNotes at the start of the year. Bangor University’s Fraser Masterston won the Derek Moore Student Award for his post-graduate study of Shags and Guillemots on Puffin Island.

Both photos, and 11 others from across Wales, feature in the 2026 Welsh Ornithological Society calendar. If there are any copies left, you can have these prize-winning images on your own wall for a year - click here to order one.