[Dora Querido, the RSPB's EU Life+ Project Officer, reports from Bulgaria…]
From time to time I ask myself how come I work for a conservation organisation but spend most of my days detached from nature sitting in front of a computer screen? Well, the 9th of January 2014 was not one of those days…
07:30 – we're off and heading to Durankulak Lake to see red-breasted geese taking off from their roosting site. It turns out that this is a very easy way to tick off an Endangered species. The sunrise is beautiful and the geese are flying in huge flocks – we are a happy team already!
Sunrise at Durankulak, spotting red-breasted geese (Dora Querido/Nicky Petkov)
08:30 – visit to the Project Field Station.
09:00 – back to town for a meeting and induction into the day's work. Peter Cranswick from the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT) is charging satellite tags and preparing harnesses because there are geese in the catching area - it sounds too good to be true.
11:00 – meeting with local farmers involved with the project.
13:30 – lunch. [Nice to see everyone gets a good feed in the field! Ian F]
14:30 – we set off to Kaliakra to visit the wind farms to get a better understanding of the conflicts that arise between energy generation and the geese in the winter.
15:45 – fog too thick to see anything! We head back.
16:05 – Nicky knocks on everyone’s doors yelling: “Hurry up!!! They caught some geese!”
16:20 – we arrive at the catching area as the last white-fronted goose is being taken out of the net, and help move the birds out of the fields and in to the area where they will be processed (aged, sexed, ringed, weighted, etc).
Handling and measuring red-breasted geese (Luigi Boccaccio)
??:?? – oops, I lose track of time - it is getting dark and someone distributes head torches, that's all I know. I take responsibility as record keeper, Luigi helps carry geese in and out of the processing area, and Lenke assists with the neck and leg rings. I am excited to ring a red-breasted goose with the help of Kane Brides, the WWT A-ringer on site, and later a white-front. Once the recording is done, the heaviest birds (3 red-breasted and 4 white-fronted) are tagged. The remaining are release together in the field (Luigi and I have to learn quickly how to carry two geese at the same time - luckily, I am given red-breasted, which are much smaller). Totals: 40 birds, 12 red-breaded and 28 white-fronted.
19:00 – we watch Peter and Anne putting GPS tags on both species of goose.
20:30 – back to the hotel and out for dinner after changing clothes. The year could not start any better!
A well-earned celebration (Peter Cranswick)
[In February last year, the LIFE+ “Safe Grounds for Redbreasts” project caught 121 birds and tagged 11 red-breasted geese with GPS tracking devices in northern Bulgaria. You can read more about the project on the website.]