5th September: Autumn influx begins

At the weekend, Sunday 1st September, groups of light-bellied Brent geese were seen on the Flats near Holy Island - the first sightings of this species on Lindisfarne NNR this year!

This signals the beginning of the Autumn migrant birds arriving to the Reserve, a very exciting time. More and more young families of Brent, and many other species of wildfowl such as wigeon, will begin arriving over the next few weeks.

A group of light-bellied Brent in flight

The numbers of Brent geese on the flats are regularly counted, and are also picked up during the monthly Wetland Bird Survey (WeBS). You can look out for early groups of wintering birds from our two tier Fenham-Le-Moor hide, looking over the Flats.