Greylag Geese staging and wintering in France 29
©Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust
Wildfowl
(2013) 63: 24–39
Öster-Malma during 1984–1995, of which at
least 221 (55%) have since been recorded
wintering in France, mainly at Lac du Der but
also to a lesser extent at Lac de la Forêt
d’Orient (
c
. 50 km away) and in northeast
France (Andersson
et al
. 2001). There is no
new information relating to these birds since
the Andersson
et al
. (2001) study, as neck-
banding did not continue in this area, and
there are no recent sightings in the database
of the earlier marked geese.
Greylag Geese wintering in the Camargue
seem to have a more easterly origin than the
birds in other parts of France (Fig. 4). Nine
neck-banded Greylags ringed in the Czech
Republic seen wintering in France were all
found in the Camargue, whilst five of the
seven birds neck-banded in the Camargue
subsequently re-sighted outside France were
all reported from eastern Germany. One
Greylag Goose observed in the Camargue
was marked during the moult at Lake
Hornborgasjön in south Sweden; this bird
could be of German origin. There is also
some exchange between the Atlantic flyway
and the Camargue area, though this
concerns only a limited proportion of birds:
of eight Greylag Geese recorded in the
Camargue during winter 2012/13, one had
been ringed in the Netherlands, one in
Sweden and one in Germany, whereas the
five others were from the Czech Republic.
Figure 3
. Percentage of all neck-banded Greylag Geese marked in different countries that were
recorded at least once in France, based on records in
. The total number neck-banded per
country is given for each case.
