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Greater white-fronted geese and bean geese at Käreve water meadow. Alam-Pedja

 

There have been complaints in bird-watcher lists that no geese seem to have arrived yet in many good old goose spots. On the eastern shore of Lake Võrtsjärv no one can complain about a shortage of geese. Today at least 18000 geese were on the ground in the Sangla and Tamme polder areas. A large majority were greater white-fronted geese, the remainder bean geese. In this great crowd a few barnacle geese were noticeable too. Unfortunately the weather turned fine in the day and the sun set the air vibrating so reading neck ring codes could as well be forgotten. I managed to find 6 neck rings but even at quite close quarters it was impossible to see if there were numbers or letters on the rings. I managed to read two goose rings at the Aardla polder only late in the afternoon when the air was cooler.

 

The day before yesterday I managed to read 5 neck rings. Information about these birds has already arrived from the Matsalu ringing centre. The two Bewick’s swans seen at the Navesti polder (yellow rings 043E and 140E) were both ringed together in the Netherlands in January 2011. During the two previous winters the birds were observed repeatedly in the Western European wintering areas; one of them was also seen once in Latvia last spring; now they turned up on their migration to be seen by Estonian birdwatchers for the first time. The two bean geese seen together at Pulgoja (yellow A-ZJ and A-ZS) were also ringed together in the Netherlands, in January 2010. These birds too had been seen several times on the wintering areas of Western Europe, and in Estonia they have been observed earlier – in the spring of 2010 in Harjumaa. The greater white-fronted goose (black T-RE) seen in Rannametsa village got its neck ring in the Netherlands in December 2004. That bird too has been seen many times over the years in the Western European wintering areas but it has also been seen several times in Estonia too – 2009, 2010 and 2011, on spring migration in Pärnumaa on the Leinaküla and Lepaküla fields. If you should find a ringed bird please send exact observation data with the ring codes to the Matsalu ringing centre.