White-fronted Geese provide Autumn surprise at Salford Priors

White-fronted Geese on main pit

White-fronted Geese

White-fronted Geese

Video of White-fronts

Meadow Pipit

Saturday proved to be mega day in the pits history as myself & Chris Lane found five adult White-fronted Geese on the main pit. At first glance we doubted ourselves as the birds were mixed with a large flock of Greylags and the sun made viewing difficult.

Whilst most of the Greylags took flight two remained to keep an eye on our autumn visitors. Ensuring not to flush the birds I used the willows as cover as I tied to take a few record photographs and some video. White-fronts had never been recorded at the site before so it was a great record and a bit of reward for us slugging round for hours with little reward. The birds looked to be of the Albifrons european race as their beaks were very pink and the chests contained black patches.

This was our 140th species of the year at the pits and 194th for the site (excluding sub species) since records started. The birds were present up to 4pm but had gone by 5pm.

Other Saturday sightings included eight Lapwing, two Wigeon, a Common Gull, a Grey Wagtail & a Green Sandpiper.

Heavy rain greeted Jon & I on Sunday and made birding very uncomfortable for the first 90 minutes of our session. Around 50 Cormorants were feeding on Pophills a record number in this area. Over the road on the main pit a drake Pintail in eclipse plumage was on the spit but there was no sign of the White-fronts. We did however pick out a smaller goose flying round with the Greylags which we identified as a Pink-footed Goose. (Paul Hands reported the Pink-foot on the main pit at 1.00pm). 

There have been more gulls on recent visits on this was the case on Sunday as there were 20 Lesser Black-backed, 4 Herrings and 30 Black-heads. Other counts included a Lapwing, 67 Teal, 37 Tufted Duck, a Pochard, 5 Shoveler, 100 Meadow Pipits, 25 Linnets, 3 Jay, 4 Redwing,  a Greater Spotted Woodpecker, Green Sandpiper, 2 Grey Heron and 30 Little Grebe. 

Eight Golden Plover past over head as we past the central lagoon where there are now five Stonechats. Sadly my camera had stopped working completely perhaps linked to how wet it was. Hopefully it was just a one off. In all a pretty good weekend on the birding front.