#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!