Taiga Beans staging again

I am unsure as to whether I will be able to go to Værøy this year (my last trip was in 2019 and is feeling like a life time ago) so when Halvard H asked if I wanted to join him on a long weekend trip to the Bird Observatory at Store Færder then I jumped at the chance. The observatory is on an island in the Oslo fjord and has existed since 1973 and this will be my first visit and one I am very looking forward to – we leave from Oslo in an hours’ time 😊. Here is a link to the website for the Obs (in Norwegian).

Yesterday, I was quite mobile and first paid a visit to the Taiga Bean Geese. There is only one GPS tracker still working on the birds that use the Akershus migration route and it had arrived on the 27^th.

I found the geese quite easily on a favoured field but they were already in flight when I saw them. I knew where they would be heading and 20 minutes later was able to locate them on a peat bog but where it is impossible to get close without spooking them so I was not sure that I would be able to read off any rings/collars. Fortunately for me though a young and foolish Peregrine decided to try its luck (unsuccessfully of course) and put all the geese up in the air. They flew very close to me allowing me to fire off lots of photos. From these I have identified 4 tagged birds. One is the GPS bird (#27), another had a neck collar showing 6U and this is one of the original birds that was caught in Oct 2011 in Scotland! Two other birds had leg rings only (having lost their neck collars and I am waiting for the guys in Scotland to see if it is possible to ID them). There were exactly 120 birds and 123 have been seen in the southern Swedish staging site so if this is the total number this autumn then it seems on the low side.

I have not yet looked at my photos to see if any family groups can be identified (and I must admit to not finding it easy to age these geese) but maybe someone else out there can make out something from my photos.

 

After this I drove to Hellesjøvannet hoping for more raptor action. It was not as exciting as last week but I did have 7 species including 3 not seen the previous week (when I totalled 8 species): Kestrel, Merlin and Peregrine. Surprisingly I had no sightings of either Osprey or Honey Buzzard suggesting all local breeders have now left. The local Marsh Harriers were still around thought with 2 noisy young.

Taiga Bean Goose (taigasædgås) 6U - ringed in Oct 2011

3 other ringed birds - bottom left is the working GPS collar but the other 2 have lost their collards but the leg rings should allow them to be identified

this and the following photos may allow for family groups to be identified

look for the bird on the right has a completely orange bill with a touch of white above it - these type of birds can be misidentified as White-fronted Geese

Peregrine (vandrefalk) having a go