As expected Simon has been out and found a lovely taiga bean goose flock of 87 birds. His photos are outstanding and shows off the birds plumage well. Quite a few of our birds with collars on view and nice to see them in this light and looking in good condition after their migration from Slamannan via Denmark to Norway, One sample below with courtesy from Simon but visit his blog (oslobirder.blogspot.com) for the complete set. You will not be disappointed.
How dependable, Simon Rix has been out looking for our birds after their arrival in his area near Oslo.
Two pictures courtesy of Simon with more to follow.
His blog just now has some super shots of local birds in his area at present and some good pics of Moose.
Just logged on to our tracking site for the Taiga Bean Geese and thought it is a must share picture for birders who log on to see what is happening.
It is great to be able to see such detail in the route that the latest pair have taken after landing in Norway, locate the Glomma River and go north to Akershus their favourite place to stage whether going north or coming south in the autumn. I have alerted Simon Rix in Oslo who will no doubt try and get out to see our birds and report back with numbers, collars seen and flock counts. I believe they still have wintry weather in the area so hopefully there is food available in nearby fields.
In recent days two of our birds (39 & 20) who have wintered in Denmark for the past two years have now moved north to Saffle in Sweden.
Today it is noted that another two birds ringed on 5 November 2022 (Tags 5 & 6) have also left Pandrup in Denmark and have landed in Norway.
With new informative tags being used we have gained further knowledge about how our birds migrate (Speed of flight and height flown over land and sea) All fascinating information. See attached map for flight data.
Another winter season has now ended, much earlier than we expected. Following the migration of Tag6 and others who would have been on the same migration, numbers of bean geese declined sharply. With around 300 Pinkfeet still in the area it was no easy task to try and pin down the Bean Geese that may still be present.
57 Bean Geese were seen on the 22nd January but the following day only approximately 40 could be counted.
Thereafter, I and fellow colleagues have not seen any.
Our birds are now safely in Denmark near Pandrup where they will stage before splitting up into their two flocks for the next move, either into Norway or Sweden.