Migration of Greylag Geese Anser anser according to recoveries of birds marked with traditional leg-rings in Sweden

Abstract

Traditional recoveries of ringed Greylag Geese Anser anser from different regions in Sweden have been analyzed to compare the migration patterns from a number of different areas. During the years up to and including 2012, 7,210 Greylag Geese were marked with metal rings from the Swedish Ringing Centre, yielding 1398 recoveries. After exclusion of local recoveries in the ringing area, 924 recoveries were used in the present analysis. The majority of recoveries were from the Western European flyway along the Atlantic coast but some Greylag Geese marked in the province of Södermanland migrated south through Eastern Europe even reaching Northern Africa. A number of records of Greylag Geese marked during the moult on Gotland were probably recruited from Eastern Europe. Later about 25% of these birds migrated south through central Europe. In general, the geese marked in different parts of the country showed the same migration patterns as geese neck-banded in SW Scania and Södermanland.