16.04 News from the hot spot

I am sitting in the middle of the eye of the storm. The geese storm:) Trøndelag is partly covered by snow but geese do not seem to bother. Almost half of the population is already here (as estimated by Per Ivar:). The landscape looks very different than last year. Many fields have been ploughed recently or at the end of last season and fields which were pasture last year are now 'black'. Me and Jannik read some neckbands and found some Rs -  geese neck banded this year so they are doing well. 4 of our tagged geese are on their way to Trøndelag. And other 4 are already here (Ingunn, Lukasz, R62, Danuta). Some took a rest at Tyrifjorden (Ingunn, R62, R58,R37) and Mjøsa (R33) around Oslo. I will do my best to update you with newest positions and pictures as often as possible but I am very busy doing my fieldwork so any apology for delay.

11.04 Danuta heading North

The weather is not very springy. Very few if any positions from other geese. Hopefully we get more update when the sun comes back. In the meanwhile, Danuta is heading North. I just got picture from last week from Ole Jørstad from Trøndelag. If I was Danuta, I would think twice whether to leave Denmark:)

'Spring' in Trøndelag

The adventure of Danuta

9.04 No Easter break

Geese have no time for faffing around and having Easter break. It is time to fly north soon for those who have not done it yet. Flying north requires a lot of energy and geese have to feed intensively to be able to get to Trøndelag.  Lukasz is already there. Last year, he arrived to mid Norway a week from now. Earlier onset of spring (probably due to climate change) changed geese habit and flocks of pinkies are seen earlier and earlier in Trøndelag every year. The timing of migration is dependent on many factors but since geese migrate in flocks, Lukasz must have followed his flock.

Danuta and Ingunn are now foraging at the northern bank of Limfjorden. Last year, both geese showed very similar 'pattern'. Prior to departure, they moved from Ringøbing area to the northern site of Limfjorden, however not exactly to the same place as this year.

Danuta and Lukasz - the newest positions

Danuta now and last year (grey dots to the right)

Ingunn now and last year (smaller dots to the left)

As I mentioned in the last post, our 'new' geese  transmit now many more positions per day. R62 and R53 are also foraging at the northern site of Limfjorden. Especially R53 seems to forage within small area. He does not go to roost and spend entire 24h on the fields. Below are positions from last two days:

We do not have good connection with R37 and R33 - no new positions since 5 days. Ole Amstrup, the goose observer, just saw R37 last Friday around Vest Stadil Fjord (the area where we caught the geese), where we have the last position from. The goose still has the tag on so hopefully this is just temporary problem. Finger crossed.

5.04 One swallow does not make a summer... but two geese do make spring

A huge re-organisation at the spring battle field. Christiane and Lukasz are on their way north already. This is a bit earlier than last year but still within 'geese' limits. The winter was very mild this year (especially at the beginning) and spring came relatively early so I assume this is a good time to leave. Few hundred pinkies are already observed in Trøndelag so these two geese are not the only one heading north.
R62 and R53 have also moved north but are still in Denmark. Now they are close to the nature reserve where other pinkies are also observed. Note that R62 followed the coast to get to Thisted area and made several stop on his way.

The rest of our geese are still around Ringkøbing and Stadil fjord. The transmitters of birds tagged this year are now set to transmit three positions per day (at 7:00, 11:00 and 15:00) and it seems like birds spend the entire daytime on fields, building up energy for the coming journey. On the other hand, birds from last year, are suppose to send us signal every hour. We can than capture their diurnal rhythm and as seen in case of Danuta and Ingunn, they come back to the roost during the night and forage in the fields under day light. Roost is a much safer place to rest during night cause predators (like foxes or raccoon dogs) cannot enter the roost. 

Tomorrow all new tags are switching protocols from sending us 3 positions per day to sending us one position per hour. Hopefully we can get more details about their journey.

Happy Easter to all of you and see you next week.

2.04 Freedom

James Williams decided to dedicate his Sunday afternoon to make a short movie about the final geese release. Now you can all see what it looked like. Enjoy!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHE1butIluY&feature=g-upl&context=G2396e1aAUAAAAAAAAAA

2.04 Rescue team success

Yesterday John Frikke and his girlfriend went out and found the lost tag of Caroline at once! As Jesper wrote: 'Extremely lucky because the tag was lying in a maize stubble field and the farmer had started plouging the field today but had stopped 10 meters away from the tag position.

The tag is in good shape and the straps are intact but loose.'

Additionally this goose was spotted yesterday in northern Julland so we know is alive and doing well.

Good job guys and thank you!!!!

01.04 What's new in Rs

Our new birds are sending signal as we expect them to do. All are spread now around catching area. This means that all the tags are still on birds. We are running out of colours and it was hard to choose so we can distinguish between all 10 tagged birds. My apology for all colour blinds:) So R33 is brown, R37-orange, R53-dark green, R58-maroon and R62-yellow.

27.03 Five new members of the family.

During goose catch we chose 5 adult, big males to deploy 5 new satellite tags. We chose males as usual cause males are bigger than females and we believe that therefore may better tolerate the transmitters. This year we chose North Star as the company providing the devices. Each tag weights approximately 60g including the harness. This is 10g less that last year. We hope that such weight won't have a pronounce effect on a 3kg male. Each tag is attached to a goose by knicker elastic harness so the harness can 'adjust' when geese are gaining and loosing weight during the migration.
For the moment, all tags are set to send us 3 positions per day but once geese arrive to Trøndelag, we should receive one position per hour from each individual. The tags, as last year, are equipped with solar batteries.
This year we also decided not to name our birds, cause the number of suggestions is much bigger than 5:). So let's keep it simple and stick to neckbands' codes. Hopefully it will help you remember the codes and inform us every time you spot one of our geese. The new members of the family are: R33, R37, R53, R58 and R62. Welcome and stay in touch!!!

26-27.03 The goose catch

Last week we went back as every year to western Julland to ring and mark pink-footed and barnacle geese.   Since many years, the goose catch takes place north from Vest Stadil Fjord. Recently, fast growing population of barnacle geese seems to 'invade' the areas along the coast and when we arrived, the area was almost entirely black and white. We were a bit concerned whether we will be able to catch some pinkies. We set up the canon net the day before and the next day we caught 39 pinkies and 156 barnies. This is much less than we expected but I think we were still very lucky to catch some individuals among huge flock of barnies. All pinkies got white neckbands, all starting on 'R'. Based on the regular readings surveys from all stopover sites, we will be able to say more about their migration and life. Below few pictures from the catch and if time allows, we will soon post a movie from this event.

Camouflaged net

                                                       Setting up the net the day before

Geese waiting for their turns in the tents

                                           

1.04 The grass in greener

Wow, all our five geese from last year are sending us signals. We got first position from Caroline since couple of months. Unfortunately, it looks like his tag is always in one place. We are sending rescue team to figure out what is wrong. Lukasz, Ingunn and Danuta are still between Nissum and Ringkøbing fjord. The farm areas along the coast are almost entirely taken by barnacles geese and last week I could observe flocks up to 8000 barnies. Pink-footed geese are more difficult to spot and it seems like larger flocks prefer areas around Ringkøbing fjord. Smaller flocks can also be spotted around Vest and Stadil fjord but usually far away from the roads. Surprisingly, flocks I have seen, fed almost exclusively on stubble fields and leftover grain and not on green and juicy grass which is already present. We also have first reports of pink-footed geese from Trøndelag. Could be that our geese are soon ready to leave.
Western Julland is also full of migrating birds. Huge flocks of starlings and golden plovers can be seen over the fields. Lapwings and yellowhammers can be heard from long distance and fjords are full of waterfowls. We also heard first bitterns this spring and the moor frogs already in their beautiful blue breeding appearance.

25.03 D-day

Coming Monday and Tuesday is a big day. A team of goose lovers is going to come back to western Julland (Stadil Fjord area) ,as they do every year at this time, and ring and mark some pink-footed and barnacle geese. We hope to catch around 150-200 birds which will be added to our database of about 4000 already marked pink-footed geese. Thanx to neckbands, we can track individual geese on their ways to and from breeding ground. We can get to know much more about timing of their migration, reproduction and survival rate, lifespan etc.

We also hope to deploy 5 additional satellite tags and add 5 new stories to our blog. Below are some pictures from the first trials of attachments of our new devices. So finger crossed for a good catch. 

More information in the next post....

25.03 Time to come back

The spring has arrived. Geese and swans flocks are flying above our heads. I also spotted many birds species coming back from their wintering areas and this is definite sign that spring is here . Ingunn, Danuta and Lukasz give us regular GPS positions. The sun conditions are good enough for solar batteries to be fully charged and soon we should get even more positions per day. Unfortunately we haven't heard anything from Caroline. He is probably in DK with his tag still on his back. We have no idea what went wrong and we can only hope that someone can spot this goose with blue C6H neckband and tell us what happened. Christiane's tag is also not working very well. Last positions we received from 03.03 from western Julland between Nissum and Limfjorden.

And here are the stories of the others:
At the beginning of March, Lukasz was flying back and forth between Esbjerg and Ringkøbing Fjord but recently send us positions from Stadil Fjord area. These areas are still full of geese flocks.

Ingunn is mainly around Nissum fjord. Danuta flew all the way from northern to western Julland and joined other flocks around Stadil and Ringkøbing Fjord

In about 2-3 weeks we may expect first flocks to head north towards Trøndelag- the first stop before breeding areas in Svalbard. All geese have to now gain a lot of energy for a long flight and that is why we may observe huge flocks feeding in the fields. 

14.02 Spring or Valentine's day?

The days are longer, the sun is brighter, and we get more and more data from our birds:) Danuta, Ingunn and Lukasz so all 'danish' geese are sending us positions. Caroline and Christiane are silent and I have no clue where they are now, whether they are still in NL and BL or flew back to DK. But I am patient:)

3.02 News from the Snow Queen land

Today we received data from three birds. Lukasz moved from Tipperne to Ribe area, Ingunn hangs around Nissum Fjord and Danuta is north from Limfjorden.

01.02 All good things come to an end

It is time to sum up autumn-winter migration. Number of uplinks is not so peachy and we have huge gaps when we don't know what happened to our birds. Reduced sun radiation and cloud cover did not allow solar batteries to fully recharge. We received mainly ARGOS locations which are not so accurate but better ought than nought.
Below are our geese 'go back home' routes. We more or less regularly receive data from Ingunn and Danuta and both geese are now in Denmark. Last news from Christiane we received 22.10!!! when he was still in The Netherlands. Lukasz send the last signal 6.12 from Tipperne in Denmark and Caroline on 30.12 from Belgium.

Ingunn

Caroline:

Christiane:

Danuta:

Lukasz: