\n The noisy groups, known as skeins, are a common sight at this time of year as thousands of birds make their seasonal movements across the country.\n<\/p>\n
\n And Warrington’s location in the north west means residents can find themselves underneath some particularly impressive movements of geese during the autumn.\n<\/p>\n
\n One species likely to be responsible for some of the large groups being spotted across the region is the pink-footed goose, which migrates to Britain each autumn.\n<\/p>\n
\n According to WWT Martin Mere, in Lancashire, pink-footed geese arriving there have travelled from Iceland and eastern Greenland, where they spent the Arctic summer breeding and raising their young.\n<\/p>\n
\n As autumn arrives, shorter days, falling temperatures and changes in food availability prompt the birds to head south.\n<\/p>\n
\n Their journey to Britain can cover more than 800 miles and can take around two to three days, including a stop in the Faroe Islands.\n<\/p>\n
\n That helps explain why the spectacle is particularly noticeable at this time of year.\n<\/p>\n
\n The main arrival of pink-footed geese into Britain takes place from September into October, although the birds continue moving around the country after arriving.\n<\/p>\n
\n One of their most important destinations happens to be relatively close to Warrington.\n<\/p>\n
\n WWT Martin Mere, near Ormskirk in Lancashire, says as many as 40,000 pink-footed geese can gather there at once, using its open water to roost while feeding on surrounding farmland.\n<\/p>\n
\n The scale of the autumn arrival was evident earlier this month, with WWT Martin Mere advertising the chance to witness up to 20,000 pink-footed geese at its North West Bird Watching Festival on October 17 and 18.\n<\/p>\n
\n However, not every flock seen above Warrington will necessarily be newly arrived from Iceland or Greenland.\n<\/p>\n
\n Once in Britain, the birds move between roosting and feeding sites and can also relocate between different parts of the country.\n<\/p>\n
\n This means a flock seen overhead could be making a relatively local journey, rather than completing the final leg of its migration from the Arctic.\n<\/p>\n
\n Pink-footed geese move around considerably during winter, with flocks capable of travelling between Scotland, Lancashire and Norfolk.\n<\/p>\n
\n Their characteristic formations can also make them particularly conspicuous.\n<\/p>\n
\n Travelling in groups produces those long lines and V formations which are accompanied by frequent calls between the birds, making a passing skein difficult to miss even before it comes into view.\n<\/p>\n
\n So, if you’ve been hearing honking above Warrington and looking up to find dozens of geese crossing the autumn sky, don’t be too surprised.\n<\/p>\n
\n Late October puts the town right in the middle of one of the most spectacular periods of Britain’s autumn bird migration.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The noisy groups, known as skeins, are a common sight at this time of year as thousands of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":813369,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[90,56,54,55,4407],"class_list":["post-813368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/813368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=813368"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/813368\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/813369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=813368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=813368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=813368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}