Feeding areas and local movement patterns of post-breeding greylag geese Anser anser in south Sweden

Abstract

Greylag geese mostly selected one field type, neglecting all other available types. After the breeding season they started to feed on grasslands, turned to peas during the end of July or the middle of August, then shifted to wheat stubble in the first half of September. Barley stubble and newly-sown cereals were occasionally selected. Fields with high-energy food accounted for about 95% of all goosedays each autumn. The exploitation rate of large fields (>17 ha) with peas or wheat stubble was much higher than that of smaller fields with the same crop. Distances between roosts and feeding areas were normally <5 km. In October the activity pattern, characterized by two daily feeding periods, began to weaken, with some geese staying on the feeding grounds all day. In November all geese spent the whole day on the feeding grounds. Length of time spent on the feeding grounds per day increased from c200 min. in mid-August to >400 min. in early October. Marked families not only stayed in the study area the whole autumn but moreover rarely moved between different gathering areas. There were no significant differences between families and pairs without young with respect to the time they were present and the number of times they moved between different gathering areas. Subadults moved between gathering areas significantly more often than did mature birds. -from Authors