SOME INDIVIDUAL LIFE-STORIES

To give some ideas of the kind of information that can be obtained from the neck-banding of geese in addition to the general observations of migration patterns some individual life-stories are presented here. T

A02

A02 is the oldest known individual in our sample from SW Scania that is still alive. It is a male that was marked as an adult with its family at Lake Klosterviken on 20 June  1985. It must then have been at least three years old. A02 is still alive and was seen at the coast of SW Scania (Foteviken) on 13 February 1999,   at least 17 years old.

A02 has been faithful to its marking locality at Lake Klosterviken, where it has been breeding in most, probably all years. During the 14 years on record it has been seen with a brood of small young in 9 years. In all there were 45 small young in those broods of which 32 were fledged. We missed it with small young in one additional year, when it produced a further 5 fledged young.

During the first years A02 was paired to A42. They arrived together to the breeding area in 1993 for the last time and were seen in late April with a brood of 6 young. During late spring and early summer, A02 was seen together with another female, A29, at Klosterviken, which already had a brood of 3 young. A02 changed partner to A29, whereas A42 was seen without the male in the autumn, and was not seen after that. A02 and A29 were now a pair and migrated together to Holland and returned to produce a brood in the next summer. In 1996, A02 had a new partner, an unmarked female.

A02 remained in Sweden until late October or early November in most years, returning to SW Scania in mid-February or early March. During the winter it was seen in the Netherlands in 7 different winters, first in Land van Saeftinge, in the other winters in Rilland, both sites in the Delta area in SW Holland. During the first years it is probable that A02 was in Spain but was not recorded, as in 1990/91 some of its marked young were found in Cotod de Donana after being seen at Rilland, but from later years the observations in winter were from Holland. In the summer of 1998 it was also seen moulting on Saltholm between Sweden and Denmark.

Nine out of seventeen marked young fathered by A02 were late found breeding in the study area. Two of those young below to the more productive individuals in our data set, with 16 and 17 fledglings produced during 7 and 5 years, respectively. In all, these nine marked young to A02 had produced 68 fledged young during the years 1991-1998.

The marked young to A02 has produced a large number of readings, mostly in the study area in Scania, but they have probably also dispersed to other sites in Sweden, one of the young being seen at Hammarsjön, another staging at Bråviken further northern Sweden during two seasons, being seen on migration in spring in between. Most of the winter records for the young to A02 has been from the Dutch delta area, especially from Rilland, but some have also been seen in Spain during the winter.

   To see the geographical spread of the readings of the young to A02 just click on the thumbnail map.

Up to now, only one of the marked grandchildren to A02 has been recruited to the breeding population, XZX. It was marked in Klosterviken in 1992. During its first winter it was seen in Coto de Donana in Spain, being faithful to that winter area, just being seen in Holland once during spring migration. Its parent, ATE, was seen in the traditional area in Holland, but only during late autumn, so it probably migrated to Spain not being seen there.

A01

A01 was marked at Klosterviken at the same time as A02, i.e. in 1985 and could then be followed until 1994, when it was recorded for the last time in Las Marismas of south-western Spain in late November. In contrast to A02, it was regularly seen in Spain during the winters and was recorded here in 6 winters, on the way to Las Marismas also visiting Villafáfila in one year. On its way to Spain it was also seen staging in Flevoland in the Netherlands as so many of the marked geese from Scania.

Six of the young were neckbanded and could be followed during the migration. As the parents the young were mostly seen in Spain during the winters. One of the young, A52, being marked in the summer of 1987, was in Spain every winter to 1990/91, but was then regularly seen in the Dutch delta every late autumn from 1992 onwards, finally being seen wintering here in 1996/97

Click on the thumbnail to see a full-scale map with the observations of neck-band readingsf or the young of A01.

A92

A92 was also marked at Lake Klosterviken, as an adult in the summer of 1989 and it has been followed regularly since then returning to Sweden on 2 March 1999. A92 has however produced relatively few records outside the marking area in SW Scania but it was seen for longer periods in Flevoland in the Netherlands during the winters 1990/91 and 1991/92 and once in the Dutch Delta in 1994, so it probably winters in the Netherlands.

A92 belongs to the more productive Greylags, and has produced 38 small young in 7 seasons, 28 of them being fledged ( in addition to 6 young fledged in the year of marking). In all, 20 of the young have been neckbanded and several of them has produced a lot of interesting records (see map below!). Nine of the young were recruited to the local breeding population in SW Scania, where they have produced 64 fledged young up to date. Several of them as well as A92 are still present in the area. 

The young of A92 were mostly found in the Netherlands during the winter (see map below) but some of them have been found wintering in Spain, staging in the Netherlands on migration. Some of the young has also been found moulting on Saltholm between Sweden and Denmark but one changed moulting place to Lake Tåkern in 1998, being seen there in 1998 together with the young of 1997, one of the few records of a pairs seen together with former young in a moulting area.

To see the geographical spread of the neck-band readings (outside SW Scania) of the young of A92 click on the thumbnail.

FUR

FUR was marked at Lake Yddingen as a young male in June 1990. During its first winter it went to Holland, where it was seen in the Dollard area on the border between Germany and Holland. There were no records from abroad of this bird during the winters 1991/92 - 1993/94, but from 1994 onwards we have got an interesting record of this bird from the United Kingdom.

In June 1994 the first record of the bird was obtained from Britain, when it was found in Caithness in Scotland. Then in the autumn, it turned up in Yorkshire and has since then been faithful to this area during the winter. From the summer period there are some records from Scotland and in the spring of 1996 it was so far north as the Orkneys, then going south in Britain again in the same spring. In 1997, it was seen at Loch Leven in Scotland for more than a month in July and August, whereas summer records were lacking from 1998. In October 1998, it was back again in the Teesmouth area.

Click on the map to see the sites where FUR has been recorded outside the marking areas.

X91

X91, a male,  was marked with a family in Lake Yddingen in June 1989. For the first years it had an unmarked partner, but from 1994 to 1999 (it was back on 25 February 1999) it has had three different marked partners. X91 has been seen with a brood of small young during 4 seasons and in addition to that it produced a brood in the marking year, i.e. it had produced fledged young in five years out of five. In the four complete seasons it had altogether 26 small young, but adopted two other young at least, and was noted with 28 fledglings in four years, a good result.

In the first year after marking, it was unsuccessful and was seen at the moulting place in Flevoland, returning to Scania after moulting using the unusual way over Lauwersmeer, where normally only few Scanian birds are seen. In the autumn of 1990 it was also seen in Holland before going to Spain, in later years it produced only few records abroad but it apparently had shifted winter quarters to Holland where it stayed in 1995/96. In 1997 it was unsuccessful again and was seen moulting at Flevoland together with its new partner YEV, at a time when most Scanian geese had shifted moulting site to Saltholm.

The young of X91 and its different partners have been found on a number of sites in western Europe and some of them also showing some spread north in Sweden. As for other geese marked in the last few years, most records from the winter period were from the Netherlands but records from Spain were not lacking totally. Two of the birds had been in Spain during the winter, whereas the other marked young seem to winter in the Netherlands. The birds going to Spain were also found where during the migration.

Moulting records were obtained from Saltholm between Sweden and Denmark, but one of the young ones moulted at Hauke-Haien Koog on the German coast.

One of the young, HNS, marked in 1994, was seen in Norway in May 1995, apparently migrating north. In August and September it was staging on the west coast of Jutland at the traditional sites for a large number of Norwegian Greylags passing by. It spent the winter in the Netherlands. In 1996 it was seen on autumn migration at Kungsbacka on the Swedish west coast, then seen in Holland during later winters. Probably it had recruited to somewhere in Norway.

Click on the thumbnail to see the full map of sites for the young of X91.

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