Tuesday 5 October 2021

Pink-footed Geese

Always a magnificent spectacle passing down the East Coast. I was (slightly) envious of reports whilst I was "up North" but hoped I would get some stragglers on my return. As w egot deeper into October I thought I'd "had my chips".

After cleaning Louise's car first thing for some extra "Brownie points" I decided to head to Cliff Farm for our walk as there had been heavy overnight rain and I try to avoid Bud getting "plastered". As I drove South I could hear...Geese! Now. we have quite an impressive flock of feral Greylags about, so as I stiopped and scanned that was what I was expecting as the birds headed low South...

That's Grimsby Dock Tower in the background!!

I was right!

Then another flock, a larger one and this time they weren't Greylags...

Amazing (at least to me) to have the two species for direct, distant comparison so close together. I have never seen so many Geese in the air at once here. The Greylags had disappeared South but fortunately the PFG circled and landed in the stubble on the opposite side of the road... 

You'd have thought it would have been the other way around!? I estimated c300. I had my scope withme so I decided to do a count (rare for me these days aka lazy). To my surprise I was well past 400 and still going. I made it 472!!! This is the largest flock I've recorded since moving to Holmpton in 2011. I let Richard know and he eventually saw them, as they could be surprisingly elusive in the dips.

Elated with this sighting we continued up to Cliff Farm for our walk. Would I be able to view them from the coastal path as the fields are quite undulating? Initially the answer was no but PFG being PFG I could hear them...constantly! We entered Old Hive Copse and from there I could see most of them in the same spot. I decided to wait in the trees hoping for a fly-by. It took 90 minutes (I rang my Mother) before I got what I was after...


Definitely one of the highlights of my year...and any year. Birding comes in all guises but none beat this spectacle for me...especially on my Patch.

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