Environment The migration of white-fronted geese has begun – there are already hundreds of white-fronted geese in some places in the floodplains of Uusimaa

Uusimaa, In the flooded fields of Päijät-Häme and Kymenlaakso, there are already hundreds of white-fronted geese in some places. A large part of them are the nesting population of the Barents Sea.

Most geese have been spotted in Orimattila, where there were an estimated 2,900 local geese after Easter on 20 April.

White-fronted geese began arriving in Finland in March. The first observation was on March 11 in Turku. The largest gathering in March was 300 white-fronted geese in Ruissalo, Turku, on March 29th. The geese that arrived early are Finland’s own nesting population.

Clearly fewer observations have been recorded in the Tiira bird information service this year than in the corresponding period of the previous two spring.

Until last year In the same way, BirdLife Finland and the North Karelia Ely Center monitor the progress of migratory geese from wintering areas to Finland and from there to nesting areas.

The Tiira bird information service and the GPS transmitter geolocation services of the University of Turku, the Natural Resources Center and the Dutch research are assisting in the monitoring. The research of the University of Turku and the Natural Resources Center is funded by the Ministry of the Environment.

Geese with GPS locators have been surprisingly moving around. Of the more than 40 positioning transmitter geese, four are in southern Finland, eight in Estonia, one in Latvia and two in Öland. There are still more than 30 white-fronted geese in their wintering areas between the Netherlands and southern Sweden.

Three of the white-fronted geese located in the Dutch survey are in Estonia. Two of these also nest in the Helsinki region, the remaining 19 in their winter areas.

Winter and spring has been heavy snow in Finland, but the warm and sunny weather of recent weeks has collapsed the amount of snow. In southern and western Finland, the fields are now snow-free, and spring floods have been occurring for a long time.

According to weather forecasts, the progress of spring and the melting of snow will slow down. It is likely that the migration of white-fronted geese will proceed slowly during the week.

You can follow the progress of the Finnish research transmitter geese on the Finnish Sports Information Centre’s website https://satelliitti.laji.fi/. In the lower left corner of the page, select the “select species” button and then the white-fronted goose.