Tagged birds

Meet the geese:

TAGGED IN 2012

This year we deployed 5 satellite transmitters again, on 5 big males. Since this blog is very popular, everyone would like to have a goose named after his/her name. To not start 3rd World War we decided to name the geese after their neckband number (with one exception:)

R37 got an orange track. Unfortunately, this goose lost its tag on the way to Trøndelag. The goose itself is doing well, it was seen paired on stopover site.

Although we decided not to name our new birds this year, this goose has to be an exception. Johnny Bakken is our goose observer in Vesterålen. He assisted in tagging R62 in Denmark and he was also the first one to spot it in Vesterålen this year. So here it is, Johnny the goose. So here it is, Johny the goose shown as a yellow track. 

R58 has a maroon track. This guy is paired with a female also tagged in 2012 with white R40 neckband

R53 (shown as a dark green track)

The last is R33 which has a brown track

            TAGGED IN 2011

Six geese were tagged in 2011. We chose biggest males (around 3kg) and deployed them with a satellite tag, each weighing approximately 65g with the harness. We chose males not only because they are slightly bigger than females, but also we assume that an antenna sticking out from the back of a female may disturb during mating.  So here they are:

Ingunn (‘red’ track, white O36) is named after Ingunn Tombre, the goose coordinator from Norwegian Institute for Nature Research and one of the leaders of the project. This is the second year in a row when we can track this goose. He was seen paired and with one gosling on wintering areas what means that his breeding in Ekmanfjorden in Svalbard was successful. Ingunn is also site faithful and it seems like he likes Namsos as his stop over site in Trøndelag.

Danuta ('black' track, white N70) is named 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 to her, I ended up in Denmark. Danuta - the goose is paired to another neck-banded goose - white O42

Caroline ('blue' track, blue C6H) is named after Caroline Simonsen who is part of the big goose project as well. Caroline cheered me up a lot in the field and is a famous goose scarer here in Trøndelag. Caroline, the goose, carries a blue neckband. He was caught as juvenile in 2004 in western Denmark. Unfortunately he lost his tag this spring in Denmark but was seen afterwords what means that he is alive and doing well. He is also paired to another neck-banded goose-white P14.  Caroline, same as Ingunn, is very site faithful and used to spend his time here in Trøndelag in Leksdalen.

Lukasz ('pink' track, white O14) after Lukasz Ulbrych, the only male in this team but he fully deserves to be part of it. He is also paired to a neck-banded goose caught at the same year - white N85

Gitte ('yellow' track, white O43) is named after Gitte Jensen who is also part of the geese phd student team. Gitte works with geese during their autumn migration. Gitte, the goose, lost his transmitter in the summer on pre-breeding area on Edgeøya in Svalbard. He was seen afterwards so again we know he is alive and doing well

Christiane ('green' track, white N78), named after Christiane Hübner, a goose lover from Svalbard. Christiane, the goose, has still his transmitter on but it does not work or works very little. This goose has also lost his neck-bend.