36 Greylag Geese staging and wintering in France
©Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust
Wildfowl
(2013) 63: 24–39
further north in the flyway, including up to
c
.
50,000 Greylag Geese (about 20% of the
autumn peak) remaining in Sweden for the
winter in 2009 (Nilsson 2013). This change
in the winter distribution of Greylags and
other waterbirds implying a short-stopping
further north is most probably an effect of
climate change with much milder winters
in Europe in recent years (Nilsson 2013)
but changes in agriculture are also of
importance (Nilsson & Kampe-Persson
2013).
France remains mainly a passage area for
Greylag Geese, despite January counts
having increased from just 1,000–2,000
birds in the early 1980s to a peak of >
25,000 in 2011, with still < 5% of the flyway
population present in mid-winter. The
French mid-winter total continues to be low
in comparison with the most recent
estimates of numbers wintering in Spain of
140,000 Greylags (A. Green, pers. comm.).
It is difficult to calculate how many Greylag
Geese reach France from the available count
data in France and Spain, as an unknown
number of geese are shot during the
hunting season in both countries, and these
should be added to estimates derived from
mid-winter counts. It remains clear,
however, that the proportion of the flyway
population reaching France has become
smaller with time, even though the absolute
number of individuals has increased, as
more and more Greylags are wintering
further north.
There have also been marked changes in
the timing of Greylag Goose migration
along the west European flyway over the
Figure 9.
Number of neck-banded Greylag Geese marked in Södermanland, Sweden seen at Lac du
Der, France each month. One observation per ring is included per month and year.
