Monday 28 December 2009

Goose Watching - Marshside and N. Fylde - 28th December 2009

I started off at first light at Marshside RSPB with the intent of doing several hours Goose Watching...To my horror, I arrived to a Pea Souper with only 20ft Viability. I persevered until about 10.30 and managed to stop the Great White Egret (the same colour ringed bird that visited Brockholes in the Autumn). As it was obvious that the fog wasn't clearing, I made a quick stop at Southport Marine Lakes and managed to connect with one of the two Shag present.
adult Eurasian White-fronted Goose.


Pinkfeet
It was clear that I wasn't going to be able to search for my target White fronted Geese at Marshside, so I thought I would try the flock of Pinkfeet near to Freeport in Fleetwood where Jonny Scragg found 2 juv Whitefront on the 27th. It took about 40 mins searching the flock of about 1100 Pinkfeet before i spotted anything different. A superb adult European White Fronted Goose feeding actively in the centre of the flock. This is a lifer for me and one of my unluckiest birds throughout my birding career! Another couple of searches through the flock and I picked out Jonny's 2 European Whitefronts. Hunger was taking over, so I decided I would go round to the other side of the flock for a few scans of the back of the flock. On my very scan of the flock, I picked up a Tundra Bean Goose feeding away from the flock with a Pink foot. This was only my 3rd Bean Goose after 2 Tundra Bean Geese on Eagland Hill in 2005.

3 comments:

Jonny Scragg said...

You did better than me today Zac. I didn't see a thing apart from around 1500 Pink Feet despite 2 Tundra Beans also being seen

Colin Bushell said...

Nice one Zac. A good goose day!

Derek Gallagher said...

Any chance of a grid refrence?
Drove up to Freeport today and couldn't find them anywhere.

Well done with the Ring necked, I saw the one down in Stoke earlier in the year, great looking bird.