There are currently 4 Taiga Bean Geese at St Benet's Abbey, near Ludham, east Norfolk. They are proving very popular as the regularly returning birds to the Yare Valley (Cantley and Buckenham) have, for the first time, not returned.
Taigas are much less numerous than Tundra Beans. Population estimates for Tundras are a stable 600,000 but only c.60,000 and declining for Taigas. They breed in the Kola Peninsula and taiga areas west to Finland, extending south into Norway and Sweden. Fennoscandinavian breeding birds move south to winter in southern Sweden, Denmark, northern Germany and The Netherlands. Numbers decline in southern Sweden at times of hard weather, moving first to Denmark and then further south and west. The two populations of UK wintering birds originated from the southern Swedish population.
The pair of Taiga Beans that spent several weeks in TG42 and the wider area in 2018/19
The main reason for the long-term decline to one of the two wintering populations in the UK (the other is the Slammannan Plateau in Central Scotland) is ongoing climate change. The Yare Valley population has been virtually non-existent for several years due to a phenomenon known as ‘short-stopping’. Essentially, our winters are no longer sufficiently cold and hard for the birds to justify crossing the North Sea from the Low Countries to East Anglia. The birds opt to stay on the near continent throughout the winter.
Taiga Beans may appear again in the Yare Valley but their disappearance is now inevitable and they will likely become a very rare species in the county. Short-stopping is affecting many wintering species, and the numbers of once regular avian visitors are dropping rapidly. When we watch these birds disappear, we are seeing the result of our actions.
To see accounts, descriptions and photos of the last two records of the species in TG42 (2016 and 2018/19) see https://tg42lowcarbonbirding.wixsite.com/tg42/taiga-bean-geese-2018-19 and https://tg42lowcarbonbirding.wixsite.com/tg42/taiga-bean-goose-horsey-2016
Comments