#6: First Tobseda geese seen in the Netherlands

Although the first Brent geese were already seen in the Netherlands in September, it was about two weeks ago that other Arctic geese showed up in the Netherlands. On the 2nd of October big flocks of White-fronted Geese started coming into the Netherlands, and it didn't take long before the first ringed ones were found: White-fronted geese with white neck-bands including GPS-loggers, banded on Kolguev by Andrea Koelzsch. But no 'Arctic barnies' yet..

Last week started out sad: a tagged Tobseda goose, W1N-, named Maria, was shot in Estonia on the 6th of October and reported to the Estonian Ringing Centre. Sad to hear, but a first sign that Russian geese were on their way to the Netherlands. I published a short article on the web on our banded Barnacle Geese to alert potential ringreaders, which was spread by nature lovers. Also, I gave a short presentation on the German goose meeting of the DO-G in Xanten last saturday, which was received by much enthousiasm.

Then last Thursday, the first Tobseda goose OPYN (Orange P, Yellow N) in the Netherlands was found, banded here in 2013 and seen this year on the breeding grounds in Tobseda! Some days later the first White and Black banded birds, W5NC & W5N6, two siblings, were seen in Friesland. The game is on!

So, for all potential ring readers, something on what to look for when you search for Barnacle Goose rings and what to note down. First of all, since it is still early in the season, rings are difficult to read in the high grass and finding banded birds can take quite some effort. The white rings which the Barnacle Geese banded this year have on their left leg, are very well visible, and should grab your attention to look for the band on the right leg. This one is, however, black and can be very difficult to see and read. Take your time, wait untill the bird is close, and you will be rewarded :) Note that this colour might be remind by some people as dark blue (B.) ring, which has been used in the past, but must be noted down as a black (N.) ring in geese.org.

When finding an adult Barnacle Goose with a W.N. combination, it is important to check whether the bird has any offspring following (see instructions for observations). Earlier in the winter, families of the geese are more often complete since the offspring becomes independent during early spring, and juveniles are easier to distinguish from adults in the period. This means that now is the time to go out looking for those geese. Below I provide some examples how to identify juvenile Barnacle Geese.

The upper picture shows a typical juvenile, while the lower shows an adult Barnacle goose. Note that the juvenile has 1) spots instead of clear defined lines on the flanks, and 2) less black marking on the back and less defined white bars on the wing feathers.

Below we see a picture of juvenile bird in the field, with an adult bird below for comparison (Thanks to Stephen Menzie for the pictures). Can you find the differences as pointed out in the drawings above?

Good luck finding the geese and their chicks in the field!

#5: Russian geese on their way

Just a short update this time, as Barnacle Geese from Arctic Russia are currently getting closer and closer to the Netherlands. On the 15th of September, the first flocks of Barnacle Geese were seen flying south over the city of Naryan-Mar, 150km from the breeding site of Tobseda. Now, on the 23th of September, Barnacle Geese started arriving in great numbers on Gotland, Sweden. They will probably spend some time here foraging, after which they still have 1000km left to fly to the Dutch wintering grounds.

Barnacle Geese migrating

#4: Autumn is coming - spot those geese!

The Barnacle Geese have prepared for the long journey to the south, and are about to start flying towards North-Western Europe. Observers in Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands, pay attention for incoming Barnies, look for white - black colourbands and post your observations on www.geese.org!

#3: Expedition in Russia: Chasing goose chicks

It is only late August, but the short Arctic summer is over and autumn is upon us: Vegetation growth is slowing down, mushrooms and berries are appearing, and at night it is actually starting to become dark! It is time to get back to the Netherlands after a successful field season!

With the arrival of the second team in early July, came also the period of hatching: after a month of incubating the eggs. small goose chicks broke out of the eggs! We visited all nests to record the hatch date, and to mark the chicks with webtags. Using these tags, we can identify them when we catch them during a moult-catch, and give them metal and colourbands. The chicks sit in the nest only for a day or two, after which they follow their parents to forage on the fresh grass at the salt marshes. In a period of just 10 days, most nests hatched and the colony suddenly became a very empty and silent place.

Barnacle Goose chicks on the nest

"Umka", a GPSlogger bird, remained on the nest while we webtagged her chicks

Meanwhile, Kees picked up the fieldwork on the Red-necked Phalaropes and Arctic Skuas. It didn't take long to catch the remaining 4 Skuas, after which all 3 pairs are now equipped with geolocators. Catching the Phalaropes proved more tricky, but especially on warm days they were often present next to their nests and eventually Kees managed to catch 10 birds to equip with geolocators on their backs, using legloops. It seems the Phalaropes have an interesting incubation pattern, with long periods during which they don't incubate the eggs, sometimes even days. We investigated this further with Ibuttons, small temperature loggers which we put in the nest to measure the length of incubation bouts. Because of the cold weather, the birds might have trouble finding food and spend long periods of the nest, but the exact reasons behind this behavior are still unknown for us. Something to look into next year!

Kees with a Red-necked Phalarope who just received a geolocator

The chick of one of the Skua pairs

Accompanying their flightless chicks, the Barnacle geese moult all their primary feathers at once, and during this period they can't fly. Because this makes them rather vulnerable, they gather in larger groups and stay close to the water, so they can make their escape fast as soon as predators (or humans) come closer. We use this opportunity to catch the geese, driving groups on the water using kayaks, and eventually driving them in a funnel-shaped net. In this way we aimed to catch small family groups of several families, of which we equiped the females with the remaining geolocators and the males and chicks with colourbands. By doing catches of larger groups, we aimed to catch juveniles which we marked with a webtag on the nest, which we then colourbanded. Eventually we caught around 2500 geese, of which we colourbanded 352 individuals. Of all chicks which we webtagged on the nest (600), we recaptured 150, quite a good number!

Kees and Femke banding goose chicks

One of the larger group catches

In the first blogpost I wrote about the open-top chambers which we placed on Schiermonnikoog (NL) and Gotland (SE) in order to study the effects of climate change on the growing peak of grass, the main food of Barnacle Geese. Also in Tobseda we installed a setup of open-top chambers, in which we counted grass in order to calculate the change in biomass 5 times during the season. This was often a cold activity, which we sometimes had to abort because we could no longer keep hold of our pincers. With all the measurements now finished, Femke will be busy processing all the gathered samples and interpreting the results. She will present her conclusions on the NWO polar symposium on the 5th of November in the Hague.

The effects of warming are clearly visible

Counting grass in the rain

3 months of living in the Arctic, and what are the highlights besides our scientific results? It was 3 months without being disturbed by e-mails, mobile phones and the scheduling of social events, just life concentrated on the bare essentials: getting and preparing food, keeping the stove lit, and conducting the fieldwork. An easy, calm and very rewarding way of life. Also, we were enjoying nature's gifts: fresh fish from the sea, fresh herbs from the tundra.. we can't complain about the food!

Fish!

This Northern Hawk Owl visited Tobseda end August

But after these 3 months it is time to return to civilisation, and to get on to processing the results of the field season. We'll keep you posted!

See you next year, Tobseda!

#2: Expedition in Russia: Catching Barnacle Geese and dogs

Hello Netherlands, this is Tobseda! We have already been busy with fieldwork in the colony of Barnacle Geese in NW Arctic Russia for 5 weeks, and the helicopter has come again to bring new people and more food supplies. Let's look back on the past period!

Thomas and Stefan Sand travelled all the way over land to bring all the heavy equipment to Moscow, where they met Femke, Adriaan Dokter and Aljona Lemazina to travel further to the northern city of NaryanMar. With the help of our friend and travel agent Yuri Tjuljubaev we organised all the neccesary equipment and groceries, and 3 days later landed by helicopter in the snow-covered village of Tobseda!

Packed in NaryanMar - ready to fly!

Stefan in the helicopter

Snowpacked Tobseda

The old weatherstation, our house for the coming months

We arrived almost simultaneously with the first Barnacle Geese, and migration whas still going full throttle during the first days of our stay. While the snow started to melt, the first geese started nesting in the first days of June. We already saw an interesting difference in nest initiation between the early geese around the fresh water lakes and the later geese at the lower salt marsh, which was still locked in ice in the beginning of June.

Barnacle Geese on the edge of the bay

A typical goose nest on a small hill, close to a freshwater lake

With around 600 nests in the whole colony, we started catching Barnacle geese on their nests in the second half of their incubation period. The weather didn't help much, with many windy and rainy days, but we managed to catch 62 female geese on their nests, of 40 were equipped with UvA-BiTS GPS loggers. These loggers are relatively light-weight (19g), record accurate GPS positions as well as accelerometer data (which can be used to determine behaviour), which can be downloaded using a network of radio equipment. Other geese were equipped with geolocators, which are so small (1g) that they easily fit on a colourband, and record daylength which can be used to pinpoint the position of the goose on the globe ny 140km precision. Using this combination of tracking methods, we will be able to track a large number of geese.

UvA-BiTS GPS logger

Goose W=N8, with a geolocator on the white colourband

W=N4 ("Maria") on her nest

During the catching of the geese, we suddenly encountered two dogs in the colony, running around, destroying nests and eventually killing one of the local Bewick's Swans. After two days of thinking and trying all sorts of methods to get the dogs, Stefan managed to catch them using a snare trap in combination with some canned chicken meat. The dogs are actually quite friendly, and now sit quitly in front of our house.

For the research of Rob van Bemmelen, Stefan has been working on catching both Red-necked Phalaropes and Arctic Skuas, in order to equip them with geolocators to locate their wintering grounds and track their migration routes. 3 nests of Arctic Skua's have been found, and Stefan already caught 2 of the females on their nest. Up till now, the phalaropes seem to elude us, by being away from their nests for long periods and evade catching. Stefan will leave Tobseda now, but Kees Schreven will replace him and will continue catching.

One of the Skua pairs, both equipped with geolocators on the red coloudband

Now it is time for Stefan, Adriaan and Aljona to leave, back home after 5 weeks without internet, mobile phones, but fulfilled with the wonders of fieldwork in the Arctic. Kees Schreven, Götz Eichhorn, Cynthia Lange and Alexander Muravjev will now replace them for the final 6 weeks of fieldwork. See you in August!

#1: Counting grass and preparing for Russia

The first half year of the Arctic Barnies project has past, and time has been going fast indeed. The Barnacle Geese have spend the short winter and warm spring on the Dutch staging grounds, where a large part of the population is still residing. Large numbers of Barnacle Geese have already arrived at the staging sites in the Baltic, also among our experimental set-up on Gotland, Sweden. The geese are still grazing, their last preparations before leaving for the breeding grounds in Arctic Russia. And we are almost ready as well to fly to our study site, the breeding grounds in Tobseda, Russia!

Barnacle Geese at the Open-top chamber setup on Gotland, SE

Part of the fieldwork has already started, in the form of the Msc internship of Femke Jochems. We have placed experimental set-ups on the Dutch island of Schiermonnikoog, one of the main wintering areas for the Barnacle Geese, from early March onwards. We use so-called 'Open-top chambers', which warm up vegetation by aprox. 1 degree Celcius, on the grazing grounds of the geese, in order to study how gras growing peaks will advance under climate warming. The Barnacle Geese time their migration according to these growing peaks of their food plants, and warming in the future might also change the timing of the geese. The fieldwork consists of long days lying on our belly in the field, doing grass counts to measure biomass. Sometimes cold, but very meditative.

Open-top chambers and control plots on Schiermonnikoog, NL

Counting grass is fun!

By conducting this experiment also on the Baltic staging site on Gotland and the breeding site in Tobseda, we can compare the advancement of growing peaks along the migratory fly-way. This means that in early April, we have taken the long drive from the Netherlands to Gotland, to place our experimental set-up with the help of Mattias Andersson and Johannes Esberg. They are currently still busy doing measurements, which has also been noted by the local newspaper!













The first Barnacle Geese have already participated in this project, 10 captive geese which have been trying our GPS-loggers in the aviaries at the NIOO in Wageningen. These GPS-loggers can track GPS positions of the geese, which are transmitted to a radio receiver in the field. In addition, they can track movement which we can use to predict behaviour, using an accelerometer. We'll be equiping Barnacle Geese on the breeding grounds with these GPS-loggers in order to track their migration. Wolbert van den Broek, who is conducting a short internship at the NIOO, has filmed the Barnacle Geese equiped with the loggers and followed them on the meadow, in order to link certain types of behaviour (walking, sleeping, eating) to the data collected by the accelerometer. We can use this to identify behaviour of the wild geese which will carry the GPS-loggers, and in this way collect information on the way the geese spend their time during the year.

Femke handles one of the tame Barnacle Geese

Using film and the accelerometer together shows behaviour of the geese

The clock is ticking, and at the end of this month we'll be landing in Tobseda, where we hope to arrive together with the Barnacle Geese. Then the real work starts: we'll monitor the nests of the geese and catch the female geese in order to equip them with the GPS-loggers.