24.06 Blog news

Since our geese do not do anything spectacular or simply do not give us any signals, I found a bit time and added some information on the blog. You can now meet all our geese in 'Tagged birds' section and read about how do we obtain the data in 'How does it work'. I also added one more link ('Geese in Svalbard) to 'More about geese' list on the right hand site of this page. There (unfortunately only in Norwegian), you can learn more about breeding, nesting, and feeding places of all goose species visiting Svalbard and many more information. Enjoy

24.06 Only house work

R53, R58 and R33 are silent but Ingunn, Danuta and Lukasz seem to settle down. Pink footed geese are monogamous meaning that they have one partner for the whole life (unless something bed happens like in our case:). While female is incubating eggs, male is guarding the territory around the nest and takes care of the female. That is why all the positions come from one spot because males basically do not move much at this time. Below is a zoomed in example of the positions of guarding male:

and the overview where are our geese now. Johnny is still looking for a place to nest (if this is still possible so late in the season) and is now in Edgeøya. This is well known pre-nesting place of pink footed geese.

It is amazing that all our geese tagged last year show such site fidelity: they nest in almost exactly the same position as last year. Below is the map with the positions of Ingunn: filled circles 2011 and ringed circles 2012:

and the nests locations (from 2011 and 2012) of Danuta. Map reproduced with permission from Norwegian Polar Institute using TopoSvalbard.

and Lukasz:

12.06 Johnny on the wings again

Johnny decided not to breed on Bird Island. He took 'classical' route and set off to Svalbard 5th of June. This is 2-3 weeks later than other tagged geese so hopefully he can still find an empty patch to set up the nest. Good luck boy!!!

1.06 Hard decision of R53

As I wrote previously, very energy demanding settings of the transmitters caused the batteries to get empty and not let all gps positions to get uploaded through ARGOS system. Closer look at ARGOS positions of R53, showed that this goose tried to leave Vesterålen 4 days earlier (22.05) but had to turn back, probably due to heavy wind. Geese try to choose the most optimal conditions before undertaking long journey towards the North.

1.06 Less means more

From today, all the tags change sending protocol. So far they were programmed to collect one gps position every hour and than send it through ARGOS system every second day. This is very energy demanding process and sometimes solar panels were not fast enough to recharge and we were loosing the signals. Now, we will (hopefully) get 4 positions per day uploaded through ARGOS every 4 days. And hopefully this means more positions.

30.05 Lost and found

In one of the previous posts I wrote that all but one are in Svalbard. I of course forgot about Mr. travelling goose - R53. He left Vesterålen 3 days ago and is now heading North.

31.05 A little detour

Johny left Vesterålen last thursday (24.05) and is heading North. On the way to Svalbard he stopped on... Bear Island. This is rather unusual and these geese will never stop surprising me.

Let get closer look at his track. The below marked part of his flight took him 20h to travel with an average speed of 2.75 km/h.

I thought that he must have had encountered very heavy wind and it slowed him down and 'force' to get a rest on land. I checked wind speed and direction data for these two days (data come from www.yr.no) and surprisingly this was not the case. There was light to moderate breeze that day (7-10 m/s) blowing from south and south-east. Maybe he was resting on the water surface. 

However when he decided to continue north, the wind changed direction and was blowing from north. Maybe this was the reason why he turned and headed towards the island. I am looking forward to get more news.

23.05 All but one....

... in Svalbard.

Johnny is the only one left in Vesterålen. He was seen paired up there so hopefully he will head soon to Svalbard. I am glad R53 made it up North after short stop on Leka Island. I was getting worried about this 'weird, travelling' goose.
Up North, geese seem to invade western part of the archipelago, which I assume it less covered by snow than the eastern part.

16.05 All good things come to an end

Trøndelag is slowly getting abandoned. Jannik saw big flocks heading North today and the one which are still here are scarse and very small (usually less than 100 birds). This also mean that it is time to go home (wherever home is). I will certainly miss such pictures:

Such weather:

All these creatures around:

..and colours

So time to go home? Yes

I will of course still keep you updated but not from the battle field anymore.

16. 05 First-come first-served

Three geese (Lukasz, Ingunn and R58) are racing down to Svalbard. Similarly as last year, Lukasz did not stop in Vesterålen. He rested some hours on the water south from Vesterålen and than headed to the North. R58 only stopped for few hours, probably for some grassy tea and flew towards Svalbard. Now is time to eat, find a cosy spot for a nest and again... become a daddy.

15.05 ... and in the lightness bind them

R53 on his way North. And again, this goose will never stop surprising me, he stopped on Leka Island.

R53 heading North

Stopping on Leka Island

14.05 One Ring(ed) to rule them all...

what means only R53 left in Trøndelag. Lukasz and R58 are on their way North. OK, there is still R33 somewhere here (probably), but since we do not receive any signals, he is invisible.

13.05 Chris, where are you?

Christane's tag has stopped working properly some months ago (already on the wintering grounds) but from time to time we get some signals that he is alive. Yesterday he called us from Vellamelen, northern part of the goose land. This goose has lost neckband as well. I will give half my goose kingdom  to the one who can spot this goose.

13.05 Moving North

Winter is back in Vesterålen. Yesterday we had to spot our geese in between hailing storms and sunny weather. So better move North:) No new geese flew from Trøndelag to Vesterålen recently. Up North, each of the goose seems to occupy different area.

10.5 Johnny the goose

As I wrote, R62 has already flown North. 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. Welcome in our team.

Fluffy Johnny spotted by Johnny in Vesterålen 9th of May (Photo: J. Bakken)

Fluffy Johnny hold by Johnny back in Denmark