The Geese are back! Honk Honk!
After one final blast of hot weather it looks like, and feels like Autumn is here and right on time as expected our Pink Footed chums have arrived. The current count is in the region of 150 but groups of 10 or so are dropping in regular like.
The Pink Footed Geese can most likely be seen from Tower pool hide or the visitor centre on the rear most pools and rough grazing. It's all been going on out front of the VC with a veritable multitude of ducks and waders including over 120 Mallard, similar numbers of Lapwing, 50+ Teal, up to 9 Greenshank, 6 Dunlin, up to 28 Black-tailed Godwitts, 4 Ruff, 3 Snipe and a Spotted Redshank that has been seen most days over the past couple of weeks. Other notable characters include a Wheatear recorded yesterday on the 7th, a Wood Sandpiper on the 5th, a Curlew Sandpiper on the 3rd and a Little Stint on the 1st (thanks Tim). There has also been several sightings of a Peregrine over the past 7 days over the low ground. Which is nice.
Round the way at the airfield hides there has also been an interesting mix of birds including high numbers of ducks on the loch i.e. over 1000 teal, almost 200 Coot, over 250 Tufted Ducks, 80 Mallard, 3 Great Crested Grebe, a fair number of Pochard and Goldeneye, 8 Wigeon and a smattering of Teal. Visible front Bay hide are 1 or 2 Gadwall, 9 Shoveller ducks, 1 Whooper Swan and a Peregrine. On the 2nd September myself and the vols spent some time watching 2 Marsh Harriers, an adult female (see above) and a juvenile, perform some impressive acrobatics before darting off over Mosstown Marsh. Similarly large duck numbers can be seen from Fen hide but occasional records of Osprey and Kestrel along with a dozen Black-tailed Godwits means Fen and Bay are getting a fair share of the action.
Goose picture by Rob Ballinger.
Iain