Staging and wintering Taiga Bean Geese Anser fabalis fabalis in north-east Scania, south Sweden

Hakon Kampe-Persson

doi:10.34080/os.v24.22560

Abstract

In the municipalities of Bromölla and Kristianstad, south Sweden, monthly counts of Bean Geese have been carried out during October–March/April since November 1976. The seasonal peak count was up to 1987/1988 recorded in March, during the following six seasons in January, and from 1994/1995 onwards in November or December. April numbers decreased from more than 5,000 birds in 1977 to hardly any at all from 1997 onwards. Fewer Bean Geese were counted up to the 1986/1987 season than thereafter. In most of the last 25 seasons, the number of Taiga Bean Geese Anser fabalis fabalis in north-east Scania peaked at about 20% of the total Western Palearctic population, with a highest count of 24,000 birds in December 1997. Most or all Bean Geese left north-east Scania during severe winters. Checks of staging bean goose flocks and hunting bags showed that, except for Lake Hammarsjön from 2004/2005 onwards and a few flocks in the other areas, the Tundra Bean Goose Anser serrirostris rossicus was quite rare in the region.

Highlights

The breeding range of the Taiga Bean Goose Anser fabalis fabalis stretches from Scandinavia to the lower Ob region, western Siberia (Alphéraky 1905, Nilsson et al 1999)
In meadows along the shores of this lake especially in Rinkaby ängar and Hovby ängar, flocks of up to 415 Taiga Bean Geese were recorded between mid-January and mid-March in the seasons 2010/2011–2012/2013. Both Taiga and Tundra Bean Geese occur in northeast Scania but undoubtedly, the vast majority of the birds counted were Taiga Bean Geese
Tundra Bean Goose During the last decade, increasing numbers of Tundra Bean Geese have started to winter in Denmark (Pihl & Vikstrøm 2006, Stefan Pihl unpubl.) and at Lake Hammarsjön (Heinicke & de Jong 2013)

Summary

Introduction

The breeding range of the Taiga Bean Goose Anser fabalis fabalis stretches from Scandinavia to the lower Ob region, western Siberia (Alphéraky 1905, Nilsson et al 1999). It breeds in the forest zone, in areas with a mixture of different types of mire, mire forest, ponds and small lakes. The majority of all Taiga Been Geese stages in Sweden in late autumn (Nilsson 2013a), and winters in south Sweden and Denmark (Nilsson et al 1999), with small numbers in Scotland and Norfolk (Mitchell et al 2010). There are small numbers of Taiga Bean Geese wintering in central Asia (Heinicke 2009)

Methods

Results

Conclusion