Spring migration of Tag5.

 On 4th January 2024 this bird flew east then was probably caught in  wind conditions unsuitable for flying to Denmark. The south easterly winds blew it north into Perthshire at Alyth where it then promptly turned back south via Dunkeld and arrived back at Slamannan by the 5th January. 

At 00.50 hrs it was roosting at a usual site on the plateau but at 01.30 hrs it flew off and headed east, flew past Linlithgow at 01.50.

By 02.45 still heading east crosses the coast south of Dunbar.

At 03.50  alights on the North Sea 30 miles NE of Berwick.

At 07.23 takes flight in an ESE direction and at 0753 changes its flight direction to ENE. 

At 12.05 heads in an easterly direction until 16.34 when it changes again to an ENE direction.

At 17.00 it alights on North Sea until 17.33 when it heads off in an NE direction. 

At 22.52 now heads east and alights on the sea within sight of the Danish coast at 00.52.

At 04.52 flies again after a 4 hour rest. 

At 06.45 flying ENE crosses the Danish coast south west of Thisted.

At 09.52 touches down near Pandrup.

End of migration flight to staging area.

12.52 flies SW back towards Thisted.

Flight details: crossing time 32 hours, resting on sea 8 hours, flying time 24 hours. 

Below is map showing all of this movement given off by its collar tag. 

This early movement was not predicted as last year it was later in January before our birds moved east to Denmark. 

The weather conditions in Denmark have been much colder than in Scotland with much snow on the ground within their staging areas at Thisted and Pandrup.  

We are unsure just how many other birds went with tag5, but out of a winter total of approx 170 birds we appear to still have at least 68 birds still at Slamannan. 

Autumn movement of Tag39 in Sweden

 Winter weather has at last made tag 39 move south west to Thisted in Jutland. You will recall that this bird had attempted a crossing of the north sea some weeks ago but did an about turn and returned to Sweden. Interesting now to see if it stays in Denmark as it has done for the past two winter seasons. 

See map below.

Our flock at Slamannan has not increased in size for the past two weeks and the birds we have are split up during most days making total counts difficult. 

Roosting appears to be taking place in the eastern part of the plateau once again. 

Update on our wintering flock of Taiga Bean Geese

 The Slamannan flock of bean geese has now increased to c160 birds. It was good today to see that tag V6 who is now 10+ years old has returned once more for the winter. 

Good too as it confirms we have part of the Swedish group of birds that come south through Saffle in Sweden from Dalarna County in the north. 

We are however still short of our total of 218 birds of last winter. 

Updated map showing autumn movement 2023

 Attached is the map showing the movement of Tag5 (blue) track from Norway to Slamannan. 

The red track shows the movements of Tag39 who thought about coming to Slamannan but for some reason turned around and has gone back into Sweden. 

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.