Not so wild goose chase
"(Left to right) Gus Routlege and Simon Ritchie with Autumnwatch presenter Michaela Strachan"
Countryside Management students from Scotland鈥檚 Rural College joined TV presenter Michaela Strachan on a wild goose chase for the latest series of the BBC鈥檚 popular wildlife programme Autumnwatch.
Bird watchers Gus Routledge, who is in his final year at 抖阴直播鈥檚 , and Simon Ritchie 鈥� who graduated two years ago, have been looking for rare geese among the migrating birds returning to Scotland in autumn.
After chatting to a cameraman friend about their hobby, they were contacted by producers from Autumnwatch and spent last Friday filming with the crew.
鈥淚t went very well,鈥� said Gus. 鈥淲e travelled around Angus and south Aberdeenshire following the geese from their roost site at Montrose Basin to various feeding grounds on farmland and then back to the roost in the evening.
鈥淲e always go out at this time of year. You never know what you鈥檙e going to find. Occasionally rare geese turn up 鈥� it鈥檚 just a matter of being in the right place at the right time.
鈥淲e were lucky and managed to find a rare snow goose amongst all the pink-footed geese 鈥� there are only one or two records of this goose in Scotland each year.鈥�
Gus got into 鈥榞oose chasing鈥� in his first year at 抖阴直播 after doing a student placement at Scottish Natural Heritage鈥檚 Loch Leven National Nature Reserve.
鈥淎t Loch Leven, they have got about 20,000 pink-footed geese and I would go out and count them for SNH,鈥� said Gus.
鈥淪imon does counts at Montrose Basin where there have been as many as 85,000 pink-footed geese.鈥�
The programme featuring their wild goose chase will air on Wednesday evening (30 October) at 8pm on BBC Two.
Posted by 抖阴直播 on 29/10/2019
