Week 48: Barnacle Goose ('Branta leucopsis')

The Barnacle Goose was @SpeciesofUK from 27^th January to 2^nd February, 2014.

Barnacle geese are medium-sized geese with a distinctive white face and belly, and black head, neck and breast.[1]

Barnacle Goose
[Wikimedia Commons © Ludovic Péron]

They are Arctic geese that come to the UK for winter and congregate in spectacular fashion. 

Week 44: Snow Bunting ('Plectrophenax nivalis')

The Snow Bunting was @SpeciesofUK from 23^rd December 2013 to 5^th January 2014.

Snow buntings are small birds that breed mainly in the Arctic and migrate south in the winter.[1]

Snow Bunting
[Flickr Creative Commons © foxypar4]

In the UK, we have a large wintering population of snow buntings and we are also lucky enough to have a small summer breeding population, in the Cairngorms of Scotland.[2] Snow buntings have been described as “possibly the most romantic and elusive bird in the British Isles.”[3]

Week 38: Dunlin (‘Calidris alpina’)

The Dunlin was @SpeciesofUK from 14^th to 20^th October, 2013.

Dunlins are waders that form massive winter flocks in the UK. They are known for the black bellies they develop in their distinctive breeding plumage.

Dunlin
[Source: Flickr Creative Commons © talis qualis]

Week 11: Long-tailed Duck (Clangula hyemalis)

The long-tailed duck was @SpeciesofUK from 10^th to 16^th February 2013.

The long-tailed duck is a sea duck. Other sea ducks found in UK waters include eiders, scoters, goldeneyes and mergansers.

Male Long-tailed Duck
[Source: Rictor Norton & David Allen]

The long-tailed duck is not resident in the UK; it's a winter visitor. It's most common in estuaries and bays in northern Scotland but is also seen as far south as Norfolk.

Week 7: Common snowdrop (Galanthus nivalis)

The snowdrop was @SpeciesofUK from 13th to 19th January 2013.

Common Snowdrops, Galanthus nivalis, are the most widespread of the 19 species in the genus Galanthus, all of which are known as “snowdrops.”

Snowdrop, Galanthus nivalis
[Source: Caroig]

Snowdrops occur from the Ukraine to the Pyrenees, and from Greece to Poland. They are not actually native to the UK. The snowdrop wasn’t recorded wild in the UK until the 1770s.¹

Week 2: Common Ash (Fraxinus Excelsior)

Common ash was @SpeciesofUK from 9th to 15th December 2012.

Common ash belongs to the genus 'Fraxinus,' a group of 50-odd species famous for their 'helicopter' seeds.¹ It is one of the most (3rd or 4th) common trees in the UK, and one of the largest, growing up to 45m tall.

Common Ash
[Source: Jean-Pol GRANDMONT]

The UK has 80 million ash trees covering 5% of our woodland.² Ash is such a good coloniser of open ground it has attracted the nickname 'the weed tree.'