Friday 28 February 2014

Great News today from Norway

Got a phone call today to confirm that Tag06 who had been left behind on the Slamannan Plateau for a few days on his own has surfaced in south west Norway.

His flight details will probably appear on our website - scotlandsbeangeese.wikispaces.com in due course.

It will be interesting to see if he waits and heads for the Glomma river area or diverts to Denmark to meet up with the rest of the flock who are there.

Life is never dull when watching bean geese

Tuesday 25 February 2014

Migration Update on Taiga Bean Geese - Slamannan flock 25th February 2014

News has come in that part of our flock have been seen in northern Denmark by Thomas Heinicke (see below)

I made a counting/neckband reading trip to NW Jylland yesterday (23.2.14).
I visited Lundergard Mose (15:40) and found a flock of
98 Taiga Beans feeding on winter wheat. In this flock I found 10 grey
neckbands (7P, 7U, 3Y, 6Y, 6X, 6S, 6Z, 7X, 7V, 6U) and 5 birds with
transmitters/loggers at the neck (but no chance to read inscriptions of

these).

Exciting news once again that the Slamannan birds have again made landfall in Denmark. 

The 5 birds that Thomas refers to will surely be Tag07 and his brood of four.

Tag06 was still on the plateau lunchtime yesterday but wasn't found pm in the area. Weather looks good today so won't be surprised that if the rest of the flock go or have already gone.

Wednesday 19 February 2014

News on the Slamannan flock of Taiga Bean Geese

Participated in a dusk roost count today with Brian Minshull. Weather was dull and misty with little wind which was good for listening to incoming flocks of bean geese.

I counted 23 bean geese coming to roost a East Fannyside Loch at 1800hrs which was 1/2 hour after dusk.

Brian further to the east at Darnrig counted a total of 60 Bean Geese and 2 Canada Geese.

These numbers may well indicate that some of our birds have already left us for Denmark. Hopefully if this has occurred we will get some information from two of our birds with GPS tags attached.


Sunday 9 February 2014

Roost visit Fri 7th February 2014

I had located a flock of 80 bean geese at Strathaven prior to roost tonight so returned to the area to check on their roost location.

Fortunately I met up with farmer Jim Brown of Greencraig who was just setting out to return some sheep to the same area. Knowing that the geese would be disturbed I re-arranged my location to watch the disturbance take place and observe just where the 80 birds would re-locate to.

I drove to a spot west of the goose field and waited in the dimming light at 1730hrs. Sure enough on the approach to where the bean geese were, Jim's tractor and trailer spooked them and they took flight in the direction of Darnrig Moss where they would most likely settle for the night.

I then drove to Fannyside to watch for the rest of the bean goose flock flighting into the area to roost. At 1800hrs in the gloom I was rewarded by a spectacular vocal flight of 150 bean geese flying overhead and alighting onto East Fannyside Loch. Such events are truly wonderful to behold and make all the effort in monitoring this rare flock of  geese worthwhile.