Goose River

I was on Islay for most of the day and so were an enormous number of geese.

The Islay goose conservation project of the last decade has been extraordinarily successful and has seen the goose population of the island - and increasingly of the neighbouring islands and mainland - climb to record proportions.

But geese don't graze but pluck grass from the ground. So when the ground is already sodden this activity turns good pasture into pock marked mud very quickly.

Geese were everywhere on the best pasture today and when I tried to take some pictures I discovered something else - they flow constantly , always on the move. I watched them for a time in close up and it was like a river of geese running across my small screen. That is why I cut and framed this in a slightly unusual way (which benefits from being viewed large ).

In Uist a limited cull is now taking place with goose meat on the local market. No one on Islay wants to do anything other than secure a sustainable population but presently the numbers are so far in excess of that that sustainability of other species is also being threatened.

An interesting conundrum for all of us and one that needs an early solution given the need for sustainable farming on the island as well.