Our birds are back for a new winter at Slamannan

 We now have a flock of around 112 birds back on the Slamannan Plateau. 

They have been using two roost sites, one being the traditional site at the Fannyside Lochs area. Always a good spot to look for them, at dusk or a bit later or at dawn.  

Please remember to look for our birds from the road systems that are in and around the town of Slamannan. Please do not enter fields as farmers still have stock in them at this time of the year.

For information on viewing the flock please refer to the SOC App for Bean Geese. 

Autumn Migration (Update) 02 October 2023

 One of our birds (tag 05) has commenced its flight to Slamannan yesterday 01 October. It left the Akershus area north of Oslo in the early morning and arrived on the south west coast later in the day. It is presumed that strong westerly winds then made it change direction and it has flown north towards Stavanger.  (see Map)

It may mean that other birds have moved across the north sea so visits to Slamannan will be the order of the day. 

Update on autumn migration by Simon in Oslo

 Simon was out checking up on the bean goose flock on 18 September and found the flock of 101 had not increased and that V8, Tag27 and Tag05 were still present. 

You can visit his blog to view some pictures of the birds. I attach one courtesy of Simon for you to  view. He did comment that wintry weather was not far away and today's forecast from Norway mentions snow. That may mean that our birds may well move south towards us in central Scotland. 

New pictures on Simon's website of the Scottish Taiga Bean Geese and comments on what he found.

 I attach one picture (courtesy of Simon) from his recent visit to see our flock. 

Some other nice shots too of raptors in the area.

Tag 05 and V8

Update on Autumn migration data

 Tag39 has now moved south to Saffle in Sweden. See picture below. (red star)

More news from Simon in Oslo confirms that he has seen 101 Bean Geese on 30th August. He will update pictures on his blog soon. 

He has confirmed visual on collars V8, 27 and 05 and also 9 juveniles within the flock. 4 broods (4x2, 1x1)

Autumn Migration underway 17 August 2023

 A check today on tag5 shows that this bird has moved from the breeding area to near Akershus, a traditional area for one part of our bean goose flock. 

Tag39 is still showing as being in the breeding area. 

Attached map is showing these movements.

Update on Spring Migration 2023

 Our flock of birds in Norway have moved north on the Glomma River system. See tracks of the green tracking. 

The Swedish flock are showing moving north to the breeding grounds with Tags 39 and 20 showing up well to the north. 

The weather this spring has caused a lot of problems with our birds migration so we hope that they manage to breed successfully eventually.

See map below.