FIRST DATA FROM THE TAGGED RED-BREASTED GEESE
27.02.2013

First data were successfully collected from the radio GPS -marked Red-breasted geese in the beginning of February.  The GPS radio transmitters provided a reassuring amount of information. Data show that after the end of the hunting season in late January the geese stick mainly to the lakes’ vicinity. With one or two exceptions, between February 8 to 20^th, the geese have actually spent all the nights in the lakes, unlike earlier in the season when they used to roost in the sea, which shows the influence of the disturbance during the hunting season on their behavior.

The geese have already started their migration north and the last Red-breasted geese will soon be heading to Romania and Ukraine, where they will spend most of March.  After the birds leave Bulgaria, we will rely on Asparukh and Vasco to show the principal stops of the geese during their migration to their breeding grounds.

These two great Bulgarian names (Asparukh is the first Bulgarian khan, while Vasco is a very popular man’s name) were given to the Red-breasted “heroes” by the children of "St. Kliment Ohridski” school in the village of Durankoulak. For nine years the Durankoulak school maintains regular contacts and friendly relationship with the school in Caerlaverock - Scotland, also located in an area of wintering geese, where our partners of the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT) run goose research and conservation projects.