Among the birds equipped with GPS devices along the Channel-Atlantic coast this winter, several Anatidae and Snipes have packed their bags for the northern lands where they will be breeding. Their migration has only just begun and there is nothing to suggest their final destination: Scandinavia? Eastern Europe? Siberia ?
All the geese have stopped off at the immense coastal wetlands of the North Sea, in the Netherlands, Germany or Denmark, but they will probably continue on their way once they have replenished their reserves.
While the pintails only flew inland, all the geese and one snipe flew over the sea in the English Channel and the North Sea.

Anatomy of a flight

The N°14 goose left the salt meadows of Mont Saint-Michel at 11pm on 24/05 and landed at 9am the next morning on the island of Texel, north of Amsterdam, a place internationally renowned for the hundreds of thousands of migratory birds that stop over there every year. To make this one-shot journey over the sea, the goose flew very close to the surface of the water at speeds of between 55 and 75km/h.

Merci à tous les partenaires qui ont aidé pour les captures !