Struggling

Those Bean Geese aren’t being cooperative. Being Scottish there obviously trying to show how independent they are ;-)

An unpleasantly strong and cold NW wind coupled with a dusting of snow that fell overnight probably wasn’t the best conditions to be out searching but I am determined to pin down the flock and get a total count plus read some more neck rings. The only problem is that the birds are ranging widely with seemingly a new field chosen each day – presumably as a result of little food? Armed only with a map plotted with locations of the GPS tagged bird that are three days old is therefore not a recipe for quick success. I checked out the fields used at the back end of last week but had no joy. I also checked every other field I drove past but couldn’t find them. On the river, where they are roosting at night, I did find a single lost bird. Whether this was new in or had just lost contact with its kin I don’t know. The water level is on its way down with the sandbank clearly visible today just under the surface so it could be that in a few days time it is exposed thus increasing the chance of the birds loafing on the river during the day. I will also have to try to find a chance to be at the river at dusk to count the birds coming in to roost although I don’t know how late they come in – it could well be that they arrive after dusk meaning that counting is not possible.

There was little else to see today. In the valley near Bjørkelangen the flooding is now nearly gone and although Cranes now number 30 there was little else to see. We are due a spell of cold weather this week but some periods of rain/snow might help bring down some migrants.

The map I was armed with in my search for the geese. The Glomma river is at the bottome and in 2013 the birds just used the fields with the red plots to the west of the river. As can be seen they are roaming much more widely

spot the goose. The enlarged area is on the river bank in the middle of the picture.

Cranes

the submerged sandbank can clearly be seen as a brown area in the river.