It was a bit of an adventure with the geese on Tuesday, not least because I had to turn my back on the birds for while, to avoid being hit in the face with hailstones during a heavy shower with a howler behind them coming in off the sea.
I was determined to keep up to date with the invasion, and paid a follow-up to Mondays visit to Heysham to see if I could add to the 72 and arrived at a count of 88 Brent Geese including at least one Dark-bellied Brent Goose, MD had recorded two earlier in the day.
The path from the promenade climbs up towards Knowley's Road, from where I waited then watched the geese fly off south at 11.30am. I sent MD a text to tell him about the movement, to get a reply later to say he had seen 10 Brent Geese at Red Nab, but they soon flew off heading down the coast towards Potts Corner.
A brief look in on the shore at Half Moon Bay saw 2 Rock Pipit.
The Brent Goose.
Two distinct populations of Pale-bellied Brent Geese winter in Britain and Ireland, those from Svalbard on Lindisfarne, and those from high Arctic Canada around Strangford Lough.
Enquiries about the unprecedented numbers of Pale-bellied Brent Geese currently at Heysham - including two Canadian ringed birds - lead me to understand, that these birds are from Walney Island in Cumbria - 170 there on Tuesday. On the other hand, British wintering Dark-bellied Brent Geese all originate from the central Siberian Arctic, mostly around the Taimyr Peninsula.
I must say I really enjoyed the exercise on Tuesday despite the less than poor - pretty awful - weather conditions. It was surreal to see this number of Brent Geese at Heysham.
Clik the pik....there's more to see if you do.
The path from the promenade climbs up towards Knowley's Road, from where I waited then watched the geese fly off south at 11.30am. I sent MD a text to tell him about the movement, to get a reply later to say he had seen 10 Brent Geese at Red Nab, but they soon flew off heading down the coast towards Potts Corner.
A brief look in on the shore at Half Moon Bay saw 2 Rock Pipit.
The Brent Goose.
Brent Geese Heysham 27 January. Pete Woodruff. Clik the pik
Two distinct populations of Pale-bellied Brent Geese winter in Britain and Ireland, those from Svalbard on Lindisfarne, and those from high Arctic Canada around Strangford Lough.
Enquiries about the unprecedented numbers of Pale-bellied Brent Geese currently at Heysham - including two Canadian ringed birds - lead me to understand, that these birds are from Walney Island in Cumbria - 170 there on Tuesday. On the other hand, British wintering Dark-bellied Brent Geese all originate from the central Siberian Arctic, mostly around the Taimyr Peninsula.
I must say I really enjoyed the exercise on Tuesday despite the less than poor - pretty awful - weather conditions. It was surreal to see this number of Brent Geese at Heysham.
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