wild FEBRUARY

7 nature encounters for the month ahead

- BEN HOARE

1 Welcome sound

TIME FOR A MUCH-NEEDED GOOD news story. The barnacle geese that spend winter in southwest Scotland appear to have recovered after a third of this T population died of bird flu in 2020-21. Spectacular, yapping flocks of these lovely geese, which breed on Svalbard, a remote Arctic archipelago, commute daily between feeding areas along the Dumfries and Cumbrian coast and roost sites in the muddy Solway Firth.

2 All together

BRITAIN'S WINTER FLOCKS OF WADING birds are among the country's greatest natural spectacles. Knot form the largest of these gatherings. They are thick-set sandpipers, closely related to dunlin, which spend the winter almost exclusively on muddy estuaries, seldom venturing inland. Their biggest flocks peak at more than 100,000 individuals a thrilling sight.