Fingal County Council, a partner of the Dublin Bay Biosphere commissioned University of Exeter Student, Tess Handby, to conduct a survey of Brent Geese in the Dublin Bay Biosphere. Additional funding was provided by Dublin City Council and Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council to help ensure the research achieved its primary goals.

This video explains the reasons behind the research and demonstrates the methods used.

As most people will know, wild birds in general are easily spooked. This means that our capture method needs to be hidden from the birds view, until they are in a position to be safely caught.

To do this we use cannon-nets, to catch the birds. Although it sounds dangerous, it is a commonly used method of catching wading birds for research and the welfare of the Brent Geese is of the highest priority throughout.

The method involves having an experienced team along with Tess, including a cannon-net licensee (licensed by the National Parks and Wildlife Service) and a lot of specialist equipment.

We hope you enjoy the video. And as you’ll see, all birds were released without harm AND no bird was injured during the creation of this video, although our lightweight digital camera did take a little tumble…