NECKBANDING OF NORDIC GREYLAG  GEESE

 Marking of Greylag Geese with neck-bands started in SW Scania and Södermanland (Öster-Malma) in 1984, Finland and Gotland in 1985 and in Denmark and Norway in 1986. Scania and Södermanland are typical breeding sites families being caught in brood rearing areas. Single moulting individuals are also included. The catching areas on Gotland are moulting sites, whereas the catching areas in Finland and Denmark as well as the smaller Swedish sites include both breeding birds and moulters. In Norway some sites are primarily moulting areas, whereas  mostly breeding birds are marked at other sites.

A new catching area was established at Lake Hornborgasjön in 2004, when a number of breeding Greylags withtheir young were caught and neck-banded.

CODES USED

The codes used consists of one serial letter red vertically followed by either a number, a digit and a letter or a combination of two letters (se above!). To avoid misreadings we do not used both 66 and 99 and similar codes but only one of them. A number of other letters are also excluded from the coding system to avoid misreadings. Two grades of blue collars are in use. The text is normally white but there are neck collars in the series H with letter combinations, where the codes are black on light blue.

Starting in 1997 a number of neckbanded Greylag Geese from SW Scania have also been marked with numbered leg-rings in addition to the normal metal ring. The legbands can be read at close distance and will be used to check for neck-band losses on a sample of geese.'

Serial letters are allocated to the different marking areas as follows:

To get more information on the neckbanding follow the links below:

To Homepage Nordic Greylag Goose Project 

Page last updated 2006-06-05

A92 with a partner. A92 was marked at Klosterviken as an adult breeder in June 1989. It was still there wearing the same neckband in summer 2004, 15 years after marking, when this picture was taken. It did not return in 2005.