Salmon and Beans

Yesterday I squeezed in another (this one surely the final) trip to the Scottish Taiga Bean Geese hoping to get a definite count and also read some collars. I had 82 birds split into a group of 64 that kept itself very well hidden in a depression in the field and a group of 18 that flew in from the north whilst I was there and landed but didn’t mix with the others. The 18 contained no ringed birds but the group of 64 contained the 6 different ringed birds that I have noted early in the autumn plus one new bird (but a bird that I have noted on the site in previous years). The first birds have already turned up in Scotland so the birds are undoubtedly already moving on and I find it worrying that I have noted so few ringed birds. Obviously more could have been present when I had the max count of 136 on 15 Sept but when the birds were too distant to read collar and other tagged birds have taken an alternate route but time will tell and I look forward to seeing what collars are read in Scotland this winter.

In the afternoon I had a great nature experience with the family. Akerselva which is the small river that runs out of Maridalsvannet and through the city of Oslo has after years of releases of young fish a breeding population of Salmon. It is now possible to fish for them and watch them going up the salmon steps. The activity peaked about 10 days ago but we were lucky enough to see at least 10 large fish resting in the waters under a bridge and seeing some fish trying to leap up waterfall. With better planning next year I would imagine that some great views could be obtained of the salmon.

large Salmon

a leaping Salmon

the Beans were in a depression close to the forest where the arrow is whilst Canada and Greylag geese were feeding close to the road in the right of the picture

from another angle the Beans can be seen in the depression with Canada at the top of the field

slight closer shot of the Beans. A few of the collared birds are amongst those at the bottom of the group