28.08.2011 Nihil novi up North

The other four geese only send us ARGOS positions but we can see that they stay around the same areas.

28.08.2011 Lukasz is digesting bigos

Lukasz is the only goose giving us GPS signals at the moment. He finished moulting but stays around Kaffiøyra. He is moving back and forth, maybe having 'reisefieber' before heading South soon.

22.08.2011 Danuta is getting ready to head South


After moulting, Danuta moved a little bit north in Edgeøya where:
"...the grass is greener,
the light is brighter,
the taste is sweeter,
the nights of wonder
with friends surrounded...."

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6i8264L8-N4)

22.08.2011 Christiane is back 'home'

After moulting in Barentsøya, Christiane came back to Sassendalen where was breeding (or tried to). Note that this is exactly the same spot as his breeding location. Visiting a secret lover?

19.08.2011 Down to earth


The tags do not work as I wanted them to work. We received from 17 to 53% of expected number of uplinks :(

15.08.2011 Danuta follows Caroline


Danuta attempted to breed in Kapp Napier and now can be located on Edgeøya on his moulting migration.

15.08.2011 Christiane


Christiane chose Sassendalen to breed. Now is on Barentsøya on his moulting migration. Barentøya is well known moulting ground for pink-footed geese.

15.08.2011 Lukasz likes bigos:)


Lukasz arrived to Kaffiøyra 18th May where attempted to breed, started and finished moulting and stays until now. He spent most of the time close to Summer Polish Research Station which is famous for delicious bigos and gulasz:) So here we have the secret of being a successful father:)

15.08.2011 Goodbye Gitte

Due to Gulf Stream, western Svalbard is warmer than east coast. Gitte seems not to take care about that and stayed on Edgøya. Unfortunately he lost the tag 18.05 so maybe is with his family now in some 'warmer' place. Finger crossed for Sysselmanen and his tag rescue team!!!!

15.08.2011 Caroline- the Arctic explorer

Caroline visited Edgøye first. Probably realised that was too cold up there and moved to Isfjord Radio to take care of his female and to moult.  He finished moulting around 05.08 but still stays around Isfjord Radio. Maybe is frequent visitor in the near by hotel. Caroline's tag stays in touch with us most of the time

15.08.2011 Site fidelity of Ingunn

During stay in Svalbard, tags do not work very well. Geese while seated cover solar battery by feathers and battery drains quite quickly. Ingunn 'jumped' to Ekmanfjorden 18th of May where stays until today. We received the last GPS uplink in the beginning of July but based on ARGOS positions, we know that Ingunn is still there. More detailed map of Svalbard and place names can be found here: http://toposvalbard.npolar.no/

29.05.2011 Summary of spring migration


25.05.2011 Girls' power!!!

Following the idea of Brent Goose team, it is time to name our birds. In Denmark and Norway our geese stayed close to each other. In Svalbard they spread and from now on this blog will be more 'individual'. Writing about goose #105859 sounds a bit boring so let's give them more personality. I know that the tagged birds are only males but I am sure they don't mind if we give them girls' names (in opposite to Brent Goose team:). So here we are:

Ingunn ('red' track,  #105859) is named after Ingunn Tombre, a goose coordinator from Norwegian Institute for Nature Research and one of the leaders of this project

Caroline ('blue' track, #105860) is named after Caroline Simonsen who is part of the big goose project as well. Caroline cheered me up a lot in the field


Gitte ('yellow' track, #105861) is named after Gitte Jensen who is also part of the geese phd student team


Christiane ('green' track, #105862), named after Christiane Hübner, a goose lover from Svalbard.  


Danuta ('black' track, #105863), after Danuta Wisniewska-phd student from Aarhus University. Danuta has nothing to do with geese (unless someone discovers that geese do echolocate) but partly thanx do her, I end up in Denmark


Lukasz ('pink' track, #105864) after Lukasz Ulbrych, the only male in this team but he fully deserves to be part of it. 

21.05.2011 Baby chick boom


It seems like our tagged geese do not like each other. Lots of reorganization up North but it seems like each goose found its place. Four out of six tagged geese were seen with a pair and about other two we do not have data. So now it is all about finding a nice place for nest and .. be a good father.

16.05.2011 May the force be with us



All 6 birds are 'with us' again. 5 in Svalbard (one in Sassendelen, one in Adventdalen, one in Tempelfjorden, one in Isfjord Radio and one on Edgeøja) and one on its way (note that the 'pink' goose did not even stop in Vesterålen).

14.05.2011 More early birds


3 geese are already freezing their feathers in Svalbard and one is on its way. One in Vesteralen and one still here. The 'red' and 'green' birds have spent 2 days in Vesteralen and 'black' bird 4.

12.05.2011 Early birs



One bird in Svalbard (!) (note that in east coast where is probably deep winter:), 4 in Vesteralen and one still here. 

02.05.2011 Welcome back




The tag # 105861 is working again and gives us GPS fixes from Vesteralen. I assume that the battery was recharged when the goose was flying. For two other geese still only ARGOS positions.

30.04.2011 Into the Vesterålen wild




The tags do not seem to work properly and some only gives us ARGOS positions and no GPS. But there is not much we can do about it.
One goose is already up north in Vesteralen! (it is 1-3 degrees up there and here is 15, I would never leave from here:) It only gave the ARGOS positions but this is better than nothing.
Yesterday I drove north to look for the other goose which has 'broken' transmitter. The tag is still on the goose (pict attached and if you look carefully, you can spot the antenna). I also spotted a rear subspecies of pink feet Anser brachyrhynchus silvestris.

26.04.2011 Always look on the bright side of goose life



Excuse me for no updates since few days. Not much had happened on a global scale. Unfortunately three of our tags have not given us any GPS fixes for a last week. We hope the the tags are still somehow working and one day they 'wake' up and give us super nice data. So far they are still on the animals and only give us ARGOS positions (better than nothing). Two tags are working perfectly and one is still OK but could be better.

20.04.2011 Goodbye Denmark



5 geese up here (Trøndelag) and one on its way north. 
Happy Easter,