Agricultural pastures challenge the attractiveness of natural saltmarsh for a migratory goose

1. Broad-scale land conversions and fertilizer use have dramatically altered the available staging area for herbivorous long-distance migrants. Instead of natural land, these birds rely increasingly on pastures for migratory fuelling and stopover, often conflicting with farming practices. To be able to predict and manage birds’ future habitat use, the relative advantages and disadvantages of natural (e.g. saltmarsh, intertidal) versus anthropogenic staging sites for foraging need to be understood. 2. We compared the migratory staging of brent geese on saltmarsh and pasture sites in spring. Food quality (nitrogen and fibre content), intra-specific antagonistic behaviour, and body weight were quantified at nearby sites in simultaneous seasons. Individuals were tracked with high-resolution GPS and accelerometers to compare timing of migration and time-budgets during fuelling. 3. On pastures, birds rested more and experienced higher ingestion rates, similar or superior food quality and redu...