A real goose chase

Pinkies galore

 Count them if you like

White front at back of image

Good numbers of Little Egrets & a Great White on show

 Whooper family

 Brilliant views

 Family advice

Lunch time in Lancashire

After sports taxi duty on Saturday (taking in three basketball games) I made the decision on Sunday to head north to catch up with a Red-breasted Goose that had been showing in the same field for previous six days. Sadly on arrival there was no sign except four White-fronted & a flock of Pink-footed Geese in the area.  Disappointing but certainly not the end of the world, so after an hour of checking every Goose flying over I started to investigate the local fields to see if I could find any more flocks of Geese.

There were thousands and thousands in many different locations. My car battery got a real work out as I moved around as best as possible. When looking for some Whooper Swans I found a Great White Egret stood among a flock of Mute Swans that had been overlooked by the locals. Instead of finding a couple of Whoopers I found a whole field of them, including a couple of Bewicks for good measure. I’d never seen this many in a remote location like this, it seems the lush grass was a real attraction for them.

Heading back towards Cockenham I found a layby that had great views of the landscape so I opted to scan from here for an hour. The numbers of Pink-feet were astonishing and when they flew as a group the sky turned dark. After thirty minutes I picked up the Todd’s Canada Goose along a fence line was a good addition along with a Bean Goose walking in the opposite direction. The Todd’s had been in the company of the Red-Breasted in Norfolk so I stuck to my task searching but all in vein. The M6 was relatively quiet but the long 50 mph speed restriction made the journey a little longer than it needed to be. Some of the weekend birders from around the local area had missed the bird three times as apparently its now disappeared every Sunday it’s been in the area.