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).