Introduction 1st Catch - August 2002 2nd Catch - March 2003 Next Steps References How you can help Useful contacts April 2004 update

Greylag Geese with neck-collar. Photo: Bill Haines

 

Introduction
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In September 2002 the East Dales Ringing Group joined forces with the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust (WWT) and the Swale & Ure Washlands Project (SUWP) in a collaborative new project to study Greylag Geese in the Group's ringing area. 

This project arose following the recent discovery that a number of Icelandic Greylags were using the Nosterfield area for spring staging en-route to their breeding grounds in Iceland. This was a particularly exciting discovery, as prior to this it was thought that these birds only wintered in Scotland and the far north of England (Cumbria and Northumberland). The birds were identified as being of Icelandic stock as some of them carried grey neck-collars . In addition, there have also been occasional sightings of Greylags from the Scandinavian studies (again identified by neck collars, usually blue). 

Within the Group's study area re-established Greylags have increased by over 600% in the last decade (Haines, 2001), whist that of the Icelandic stock is decreasing by up to 9% annually following the peak in the early 1990's (Hearn 2000). 

Whilst the meteoric increase and slow decline of the two populations respectively is not yet fully understood, this change in migration strategy by the Icelandic birds had prompted this study, which allows EDRG the opportunity to study both populations.

The First Catch – August 2002
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In mid-August 2002, a team from WWT & EDRG caught a total of 17 Greylags at Lingham Lake, Nosterfield and fitted them with orange neck collars with a black 3-letter unique code (see photo above). In addition, 6 of the birds were also fitted with orange coded leg-rings, the code being the same as that on the individual collar. This is to investigate leg-ring/collar loss. 

The codes that were used during this catch were as follows:

AAA	AAB	AAC	AAD	AAF	AAH
AAI
AIA	AIB	AIC	AID	AIF	AIH
AII	AIJ	AIK	AIL

Whilst the initial number of birds marked was quite low, there have still been over 80 sightings up to the end of March 2003.

Many of the initial sightings centred around the Lingham Lake and the nearby Nosterfield Nature Reserve, but the birds did move around to other sites as the winter progressed including Bellflask Quarry (3 km to the SSE), Marfield Nature Reserve (7 km W by N), and more recently birds have been frequenting Lightwater Valley (5 km S by E). There was also a report of 4 birds at Bolton-on-Swale Gravel Pits   (18 km NE), but unfortunately the collars could not be read.

 The life-history to date of one of the birds “ AIK ” which was ringed in August, is shown below:

  Nosterfield Greylag Goose Resightings Report

Nosterfield Greylag Goose Re-sightings Report
Bird ID	Metal#	Age	Sex	Date of Capture	Site of Capture	Region		Date of Sighting	Place of Sighting	Region
AIK	5227266	4	F	17/08/2002	Ladybridge Lake	N. Yorks
								15/09/2002	Bellflask Quarry	N. Yorks
								01/10/2002	Nosterfield Nature Reserve	N.Yorks
								11/10/2002	Nosterfield Nature Reserve
								15/10/2002	Nosterfield Nature Reserve
								16/10/2002	Nosterfield Nature Reserve
								02/11/02	Ladybridge Lake	N Yorks
								31/12/02	Nosterfield Nature Reserve
								25/01/03	Nosterfield Nature Reserve
								12/02/03	Lightwater Valley	N Yorks
								22/02/03	Bellflask Quarry
								23/02/03	Bllflask Quarry
								15/03/03	Lightwater Valley
								22/03/03	Lightwater Valley
								30/03/03	Lightwater Valley
Key to Age & Sex codes
Age Codes:          3 = Definitely hatched during current calendar year;                                    4 = Hatched before current calendar year - exact year unknown;                              5 = Definitely hatched during previous calendar year;                                                            6 = Hatched before last calendar year - exact year unknown.
Sex Codes: M = Male; F = Female

The Second Catch – March 2003
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The birds that were caught in August were clearly “local” birds, migratory Greylags not arriving in the UK until October and December. The next stage of the programme was to catch some more geese, preferably when Icelandic birds were present. Icelandic birds (including six with grey neck-collars) duly arrived in December 2002, earlier than the previous years and for the first time the flock remained for the rest of the winter, commuting between Carthorpe Mires and Nosterfield. A catch was made in early March 2003. It is not known exactly how many of the flock that over-wintered in the Nosterfield/Carthorpe area were Icelandic Greylags, as the possibility over the local birds mixing with genuine migrants cannot be ruled out, but it is thought to be at least 600 with maybe as many as 1000. Should the latter be the case, it would represent over 1% of the Icelandic Greylag population, and thus theoretically qualify the area for RAMSAR Status as an internationally important wetland area, should this become a regular wintering area for the Icelandic Greylags.

At this catch a further 24 birds were caught. The codes that were used are given below:

AAJ	AAK	AAL	AAN	AAP	AAS
AAT	AAU	AAV	AAX	AAZ
AIN	AIP	AIS	AIT	AIU	AIV
AIX	AIZ	AJA	AJB	AJC	AJF
AJD

Again some of the birds were also fitted with leg rings. 

These birds remained in the area for up to a week before moving on. Some of the flock (including some of the above birds, and two grey neck-collared birds) returned briefly a fortnight later, but all bar one has not been seen since the end of March 2003; presumably they are heading north to the Icelandic breeding grounds. 

The bird that has been seen since the others left the area is AIZ, a gander of at least 2 years old. He frequented Bellflask Quarries and Lightwater Valley initially, but has now taken up territory with an un-ringed goose on the North Lake at Nosterfield Nature Reserve.

The Next Steps
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In addition to concentrating on the Swale and Ure Catchments, it is planned to round-up and ring moulting flocks at other sites in the Harrogate/Ripon areas in summer 2003. 

The project is planned to run for 5 years, so any data that is received will help with Species Action Plans (SAPs) for the Icelandic Population as well as helping understand the movements, breeding success and general ecology of the re-established Greylag Geese that inhabit Yorkshire. 

Also of note is that Icelandic Greylags are being regularly seen in Norway with maybe as many as 10,000 birds present (Arne Follestad, pers. comms. ), with neck-collared birds seen in Norway in winter 2001/2 being re-sighted in Scotland in spring 2002. So it would appear that Icelandic Greylags are undergoing a significant change in migration strategy and wintering areas.

References
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Haines W.G. 2000. A Survey of Feral Geese in the Harrogate Area in the Year 2000. Naturalist 126, pp161-171.

Hearn, R.D. 2000. The 1999 National Census of Pink-footed Geese and Icelandic Greylag Geese in Britain & Ireland. In Musgrove, et al. 2001. The Wetland Bird Survey 1999-2000: Wildfowl an Wader Counts. BTO/WWT/RSPB/JNCC, Slimbridge.

How you can help
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 There are two main ways that you can help with this study.

  Ring Reading

The main aim is clearly to get as much data as possible from the marked sample. This can be achieved by reading any colour-marked Greylags that you may come across whilst out birding. Below is a list of the information that we require for the study.

  Information Required:

Essential Information:

1. Colour-mark/s seen – including details of colour and code.
2. Date.
3. Location – please remember to record a 1km grid reference with your location if at all possible. e.g. SE3658 [Hay-a-Park Gravel Pits]
4. Your name and address – so that we may send you information about the project and the birds you have seen.
   

Additional Information:

1. Time of day.
2. Flock size – please count the flock that the marked bird/s are with.
3. Habitat – please record what habitat the bird/s are using, e.g. improved grassland, water, cereal crops, cereal stubble.
4. Social status – i.e. whether the marked bird has a mate and/or family. If it has a brood, please record the number of goslings. If any of these birds are also marked, please identify, if possible, the relationship between these birds. This type of information is important for looking at age of first breeding and lifetime reproductive success, yet is rarely reported. Observers are encouraged to report observations of social status whenever possible.

Please send all sightings to me at the following address: bill.haines@tiscali.co.uk  

Helping with the catches

If you are a ringer who would like to help with any catches, please contact me and I will let you know as and when they are happening. There are no definite dates set at the moment for future catches, but information will be passed to you once we have more information.

Winter catches will be done using cannon-nets and thus any interested parties with experience of this technique or such endorsements on their licenses will be most welcome.

Moult catches will take place in June/July and, as with all such round-ups extra people are always needed for a variety of jobs and canoeists are always most welcome.

Thank you for your interest in this project. If you would like more information or would like to report any sightings or colour-marked birds or would like to help with the project please contact me at bill.haines@tiscali.co.uk

Bill Haines - April 2003 .

April 2004 update

On 29th February 2004 a catch of 29 birds was made at Ladybridge Lake, Nosterfield. All birds were fitted with orange neck collars and 8 with leg rings. In addition 6 birds were fitted with radio tags.

The ringing combinations were as follows:

coAHA*	coAHJ*	coAJL	coAJX
coAHB	coAHK*	coAJN	coAJZ
coAHC*	coAHL*	coAJP	coAKL+
coAHD*	coAJH	coAJS	coAKS+
coAHF*	coAJI	coAJT	coAKU+
coAHH	coAJJ	coAJU	coAKV+
coAHI*	coAJK	coAJV	coAKX+
			coAKZ+
*= Birds fitted with leg rings += birds fitted with radio-tags

This brings the total birds ringed to 70 (excluding those ringed by CSL). Another catch planned for 13th/14th March was cancelled as most of the birds had left the area. The total number of sightings is 188, although this does include some CSL birds

Since June 2003, a toatal of 63 sightings have been made of 23 birds. Of these four grey collard birds were seen in the winter of 2003/2004. These included two new birds for this region, HCS and TC, with DVX (10 records) and DIV (1 record) returning for their second winter in succession.
Interesting sightings are summarised below:
Of particular note is coAIN which was the bird located in Iceland in April 2003 following ringing at Ladybridge in March 2003. This bird returned to the area, but was seen only once this winter at Ladybridge on 9th March 2004.

coAID, originally ringed in August 2002, spent the summer of 2003 at Vane Farm (Fife), Scotland. (4th August - 7th September)

coAIS, ringed at Ladybridge in March 2003 was seen in October and November at Castle Fraser, Aberdeenshire.

coAIZ, ringed in March 2003, was present in the local area until mid-April and was not seen again until reported from Saltholme Pools, Cleveland in October. It then returned to the Nosterfield area during November, but has not been reported subsequently.

AJA, ringed in March 2003 has only been sighted at Giffordtown, Fife on 29th February 2004.

It is thought that the number of "Icelandic" birds visiting the area was well down on the 2002/2003 winter.

The project will continue in 2004.

Bill Haines 2004

 

Useful Links
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www.wwt.org.co.uk      website of the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust

www.luct.org.uk          website of the Lower Ure Conservation Trust (incorporating the Swale & Ure Washlands Project

www.cr-birding.be       Dirk Raes' website of colour-marking projects

www.bto.org               Website of the British Trust for Ornithology

www.wetlands.org       Wetlands International website.

Greylags flighting out at dusk.                Photo: Bill Haines

           

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