Following on from the 5 Nov post, further
news on collared goose 7VBY. As it and its mate
9ABY have settled for the winter at Regneville, a trip was arranged to try and
download the data from this GPS collared bird. I headed across on the cross
channel ferry and met up with Bruno Chevalier, Alain Livory & Rosalyne
Coulomb, three key contributors to our goose resighting family from this beautiful
La Manche department in Normandy.
A few minor fieldwork issues to contend
with: firstly the collars have moved into a battery saving ‘winter mode’ so
only try and talk to the receiver every 12 hours. This of course means one of
these times is after dark, and, as it happens, one early in the morning. Lovely
clear skies meant for some sub-zero temperatures as we stood out on the
saltmarsh in the dark listening to the roosting geese cackling gently out on
the estuary. Lovely stars but no download acquired alas, although the problem
with looking at geese in the dark is not knowing which rings are present!
So a repeat attempt was made the following
morning while the birds were out preening on the sandbanks. Unfortunately once
more no download was successful, although one hour later we did get excellent
views of the flock, including 7VBY & 9ABY as they came out to graze on the
saltmarsh. It’s an interesting wintering population as the flock is a mix of
pale-bellied (hrota) and dark-bellied (bernicla) races, and there are now
around 20 ringed birds from the hrota flyway wintering here in amongst the
>1000 individuals. These include birds ringed in late Spring in Dublin, and
also Icelandic ringed birds (as with 7VBY & 9ABY which were ringed in
Kolgrafafjordur in May this year). Lots of juveniles of both races apparent in
the flock as well. Indeed, the saltmarsh grazing areas
have excellent catching potential, and with fine company and the delights of
French cuisine to sample, I think this bears serious consideration!
My thanks to Bruno for hosting me, and to
Bruno, Alain & Rosalyne for taking the time to show me their patch and
stand around in subzero temperatures while I just stood there pointing an
aerial out to sea! They have kindly agreed to try again, so hopefully we will
learn in more depth about 7VBY’s travels.
