ARGOS.html

To Main Page

Anser erythropus

News

Here are some news of interest to Friends of the Lesser White-fronted Goose.

We add short notes on top of the list, as they come in.

For more information on Observations, see the Observations page,

For deeper information on other subjects, see the Bulletin.

 

2004

• Construction work continued on farm . Third hall almost completely reconstructed.
• 80 wintering LWfG reported from Netherlands. see obs page.

2003

• Friends have been to The Netherlands and Germany observing wintering LWfG and other birds. Story and Photos here
• Tag-goose dead: The tagged Branta leucopsis has probably been shot. More information here.
• Friends have been to Kazakhstanissa observing LWfG and other birds. Click here for observations list.
• Autumn Work: Autumn is ian deal time for construction work at the farm. The old Barnacle goose Hall is now torn down, and the new one is under construction. Also four old breeding boxes are on the way to being rebuilt. You are welcome to work anytime.
• Satellite project begins: The society has ordered 2 ARGOS satellite transmitters from USA. These shall be used to find out the impact on the migration of transportation to Lapland on the migration pattern of Barnacle Geese. this is a pilot project of re-introduction using the barnacle goose method of Lambart von Essen.
• German visitors on farm: just before Midsummer, Johann Mooij, Axel Paulsch and Wolfgang Scholze fråm Aktion Zwerggans visiteed our LWfG farm in Hämeenkoski. They liked very much what they saw here, and started to plan participation in the bulding effort later this summer. Ryanairs cheap fares make this possible.
• Swedish visitors at the farm: Just before snow melt in april, we had some very welcome guests form Sweden - people working with Projekt Fjällgås: Åke Andersson (Öster-Malma, project leader), Kalle Johansson (Öster-Malma, caretaker), Bertil Österberg (Öster-Malma, member of project), Marianne Österberg (Öster-Malma). Having enjoyed watching the geese, we decided to cooperate in ordering food and building-material. Pentti Alho will also visit Öster-Malma.
• 31 goslings vintage 2oo3. In spite of the extreme winter, 31 LWfG hatched this summer. Also the farm buildings are doing relatively well: the broken net over the old Barnacle Goose hall has been replaced . Later in summer we must go on construction work: water cleaning, a fold hjouse, new breeding boxes and a new pasture have to be built. The oldest hall must be torn down and possibly rebuilt, also
• Finnish scientist made an expedition to Kargopol oblast. Of our members participated Elena Gurtavaja, Eero Peltonen, Jouni Riihimäki Petri Uronen and also our friends Erkki Kellomäki , Ari Lehtinen, och Natalia Ripatti were there. More on the obseravations page.
• RGG:ns water fowl conference was held in i Olonets i Ryssland just after Easter. Our society - and all of Finland - was represented bu Lauri Kahanpää, who gave a talk on the hjistory of the Project in Sweden and Finland. The resoltion of the conference will contain a positive statement.
• The Friend's Observation Project of wintering LWfG in Iran has started, and first observations are available. Our researcher, prof. Jamsheed Mansoori has seen 3 birds at Fereydoun Kenar. For his full report, see the observations page.
• An imprtant donation: A very good friend of the Lesser White-fronted Goose (as well as of its Friends) Erkki Kellomäki will retire from his position as Director of Häme environmental center on Mar. 31. 2003. To show their appreciation of Erkki's career, his friends have followed his wish, and donated funds to our society. We express our gratitude for this donation of 2824 euro and wish Erkki Kellomäki tenthousand happy years, as the saying goes in China. The funds will be spent to finance our participation in the on-going EU-supported project. 

2002

• Wetlands Internationals Goose Specialist Group held their annual conference Dec. 13-18 2002 inCota Donanas national park in Spain. We were represented by Lauri Kahanpää and the rest of Finland by (in alphabetical order) Pentti Alho, Erkki Kellomäki, Juha Markkola, Jorma Pessa, Minna Ruokonen and Petteri Tolvanen. Dr. Marina V. Kholodova (A.N.Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution , RAS Moscow, Russia) talked on her research on the genetics of (our) captive Lesser White-fronted Geese. The complete report of this study can be found behind this link. Its contents correspond to the earlier announcenemts (See Bulletin 2/2002).
• Petri Uronen took care of the farm, while Pentti Alho was away in Spain. The Geese are fine! Thank you, Petri!
• The roof nets were damaged by an ice storm. In a November night, rain, changing into wet snow, later freezing and adding more snow pressed down the ceiling nets at the farm. Fortunately, the Barnacle Geese were locked inside their hall for the night, since their roof net was completely destroyed. and must be replaced. The LWfG's very large net is of better quality and could be rescued. No birds were lost.
• The new hall and Bird Hospital was opened on 28.11.2002. Here is its logo:
•  GSDSG (THE GOOSE AND SWAN STUDY GROUP OF EASTERN EUROPE AND NORTH ASIA, former RGG) has published the Resolution of their large Goose and Swan Conference in Moscow 2001. "The Conference recommends to pay particular attention to the strengthening and developing contacts with ...... foreign national societies for bird protection (e. g., GSSG has established contacts with Japanese Association for Wild Geese Protection and Finnish Society of friends of the Lesser White-fronted Goose and cooperation with them has been very fruitful)".
• Volunteers have contihued improving conditions at the farm in Hämeenkoski. The new hall will be presented to the press in November.
• The final gene test report has arrived from Moscow, and will be published at Wetlands Internationals Goose Specialist Groups meeting in Spain in December.
• The Friends of the LWfG have invited and chaired a conference of bird and animal hospitals in Finland. Most of the invited attended the meeting,, and agreed upon permanent cooperation including funding, res
• The Society is supporing / carrying out observations of fall migration of LWfG in Kazakhstan. (Funds have been donated to the Society for this purpose.) .
• LWfG autumn migration going on. At the well known Hortobagy stop-overing site a total of 33 LWfG were observed on Sep 28.2002. Almost a dozen were observed to carry Norwegian rings. Also, teh first LWfG arrived in Holland on 29. Sep. For more obs, see observations page.
• The wild LWfG had a good breeding result, both in Norway and in Sweden. In Norway, 69 exx ( ad+ juv) were observed, in Sweden approx. 20 juv .
• Bulletin 2002/ 2 has appeared in English.
• Öster-Malma in Sweden had a difficult summer, resulting in just a few goslings. The problems are due to eliminating some of the flock in order to improve the remaining genetically. This has - on the short run - led to various harmful changes, notoably to separation of well established pairs.
• An all time high number of 43 LWfG have been produced on our farm in Hämeenkoski. At the Helsinki Zoo five more!
• New German LWfG- Project
• Bar-Headed Goose Project Home Page draft ready
• New shirts and colleges with better printed logo available now
• Web pages renewed in february
  • New structure prefers a browser supporting frames
    • Start at the old address or here
  • New featurs:
    • Bulletin now also in English
    • News page,
    • Page with recent LWfG observations (Send us your's)
• The Friends of the LWfG go intercontinetal:
  • New member in Asia, another in Antarcica!
• We search for a stand-in farmkeeper for a week next summer
  • Yes, we do!
• Come with us to construct the farm
  • First half year: (Any time is OK Just call the farm in advance):
    • feb2. - 10 : north end of hall to be finished
    • mar 2. - 3 : hall interior
    • mar 16. - 17 : cleaning
    • apr 26. - 28 : hall interior II,
    • may 5. - 6 : fencing ; Opening ceremony
    • jun 9.- 17 : build sewage cleaning system
    • later: contruct food storage building and renovate 6 old brooding boxes to new standard
• General meeting
  • Mar 18 in Hämeenlinna, Birger Jaarlinkatu 13, first floor.
• LWfG artist of the year is Pekka Saikko.
• LWfG observations from the Netherlands
  • See the observation page!

2001

• Lauri Kahanpää and Antti Ripatti visited Helsinki Zoo in december
  • Agreement was reached to cooperate in food and medical care for LWfG
• Hard wind damaged farm constructions in november
  • Part of the roof net supporting structure came down in the stormy wind that hit Finland. Also part of the fence came down, so the farm area was completely open for hours. No birds were lost.
• Bubo bubo inside farm area.
  • Fortunately only other birds - no LWfG were killed. The Owl was transported away alive.
• Publication of "taking care of wounded birds-project" in Lahti in october
  • The Friend' s farm at Hämeenkoski is also used for this purpose.
• Anser indicus farming supported by Friends since 2001
  • The society supports the farm run by Alexander Yakovlev in Kyrgyzstan. Support from Roosta meeting people was found., so we could donate a full year's funds and a telescope to Kyrgyzstan. Thanks, donators!
• Wetlands International meeting in may in Estonia
  • Lauri and Antti participated in this stormy meeting. Great fun, success and problems, see Bulletin.
• RGG meeting in Moscow in january.
  • Lauri was there. This meeting was a great success for the Friends. See Bulletin.

< kahanpaa@math.jyu.fi> updated Feb.20.2004