Friday 4 November 2016

White-fronted Geese - Marloes Mere

At around 2pm a flock of a dozen or so geese flew in from the direction of Deer Park towards Gateholm. They were eerily silent for geese. Ten minutes later there were six Greenland White-front geese resting directly in front of the Britton hide among the Teal and Wigeon. Two were clearly adults and three were juveniles with no white on the face, the sixth having a slight blaze. They looked like they were settling in for the night. I guess the flock I saw fly in had split into family groups, but I could not locate others around the mere. The White-fronts would have made a great picture in the sunlight - pity the phone died when I turned on the camera mode!

Earlier a Peregrine spooked the Wigeon, with 86 circling in a tight flock until they calmed down. The Teal all stayed down. Four Gadwall, a Curlew and four Snipe were also present, but the willows only held a couple of Reed Bunting.

Earlier at the Gann there were 17 Grey Plover in two groups, 20+ widely-dispersed Black-tailed Godwits, three Pale-bellied Brent Geese, a single Greenshank, a few Snipe and Teal plus the usual supporting cast. A very noisy Kingfisher put on a great display of hovering - it almost looked like a humming-bird.