We have received further information from Dan at Lake Brosjon in Sweden and from Simon in Norway about our two flocks of Taiga Bean Geese.
At Lake Brosjon Dan has located a flock numbering 121 birds including one with a blue colour ring on its left leg. This bird was caught at Slamannan in 2012 and and was identified as a male. A UHF collar was fitted at that time with the number 16 on it. This collar has been lost in the intervening period but great to hear that the bird is still alive though the last two years it has not been seen at Slamannan. so probably has decided to winter in Denmark like tags 39 & 20. We are grateful to Dan for his observations.
In Norway Simon has been busy too and reports from the Glomma River where he has confirmed a flock size of 110 birds. This early arrival at Akershus is a sign of earlier migration and although not much snow on the ground food may be scarce. Time will tell, as they sometimes go back to Pandrup in Denmark if food is unavailable.
Simon has updated his blog and is well worth looking at since he has downloaded a series of shots of the bean geese on his patch. (oslobirder.blogspot.com) Our thanks too to Simon for his dedicated fieldwork.
This total of 231 birds is very close to our wintering flock size here at Slamannan although at one stage we did think we had that total present. This was never confirmed.
