Update 22 April 2013

Tag 07 seems to be moving about quite a bit before settling down to breed. (see updated locations on website) Tag 03 and Tag 06 have arrived in the same locality away to the northeast. Still no word from
Tag 08. Snow seems to be disappearing fast now in Sweden.

Bean Geese on the move

More news, in the past 24hrs tag07 moved eastwards from his previous position. Tag03 has moved into Sweden from Norway and has gone to the North West of where tag07 first stopped off.

Tag06 has moved north in Norway and hopefully will be in Sweden before long.

These locations are certainly within or near the locations where Bean Geese were released many years ago by Lambert von Essen in conjunction with the Swedish Sportsman's Association.

There is now much speculation here in Scotland as to the various populations of Taiga birds that are breeding in Sweden and wintering south into the low countries, England and Scotland.

They have arrived!

Just the news we have dreamed about, tag 07 has made the move north into Sweden to what looks like his breeding territory. Battery is in good order and he is within mobile phone range.

Exciting pictures from Norway

Just received two fantastic shots of two of our bean geese taken in flight in Norway. Tag07 with black ring leg and 4Y collar.
Pictures below courtesy of Ketil Knudsen

4Y Ringed as Juv male on 12 Oct 2011 at Slamannan, Scotland

Radio tag 07 ringed Oct 2012 Slamannan, Scotland - Adult male

Update of our Bean Geese in Norway

Fresh news today from Norway would indicate that a large group of our birds have probably made the next part of their migration northwards. Only 70 bean geese seen recently.
We all wait with baited breath to see if they arrive in an area served with a mobile phone network. Fingers crossed.

Latest news from Norway

Great news this morning that 220 bean geese seen together on the Glomma River. That would look like the bulk of the Slamannan flock have joined up before heading north to breed.

What fantastic ability they have to navigate such distances and recall their well known haunts. Here at home much work is still being done on the Slamannan Plateau field systems so that we can have a really close look at the fields they use compared to the fields that they don't use. Brian Minshull my technical expert has been beavering away for weeks now sorting out all the data collected by us over the past month or so.

Spring Migration

It has been a fascinating few weeks since the Bean Geese flock left the Slamannan Plateau. Firstly one tagged bird with 9 of his pals left for Eyemouth where they settled in a field near the A1.
The very same day as this news came in Brian Minshull was driving north on the A1 and with a bit of modern technology and some old fashioned phone calls he was able to home in and find this small group of birds.

Two days or so later Larry Griffin was telling us that he had picked up a tagged bird just off the coast at St Andrews  It then transpired that this flock of birds didn't like the look of the cloud covered North Sea and headed towards the granite city of Aberdeen before they found some clear weather out over the sea. After a night of rest and a good forecast they set off eastwards towards Scandanavia. Landfall was in northern Denmark where all of the birds eventually met up and remained. Feeding inland and roosting on the sea. ate

The latest news of our birds is that they have arrived in Norway on the Glomma river and no doubt feeding up before their final migratory flight north into Sweden?  Image below courtesy of Simon Rix

Let's hope that they arrive in an area with a mobile phone network so that we can at last find out just where breeding occurs.