5,000 Pink-footed Geese and 2 Light-bellied Brent Geese, but one with a story?
Well, the geese are back with a vengeance and are now on the Low Ground in big numbers. They have grown to around 5,000 in total but there could be more in the dunes.
The second WEBs of the season was this morning which showed that there were many Goldeneye and Tufted Ducks on the loch and even a total of 9 Great-crested Grebes.
Myself, Nick and Rose also dropped into the plantation which didn’t produce much save a couple of Robins and a small pocket of tits and Goldcrests.
Perhaps the highlight of the morning came in the lagoon where we found 2 Light-bellied Brent Geese but one had a colour ring! It had a green band on top and an orange band underneath so we have sent this off to the BTO and we’ll see what comes back.
The colour ringed Brent Goose.
The Pair of Brent Geese.
Perhaps worth a mention is the lone Golden Plover that was in the northern most field of the reserve by St. Combs and the 8 Red-breasted Mergansers in front of Bay Hide.
I’m trying to get some footage of the geese on our Hidden Strathbeg camera and to try and so I tried putting it on a fence post by one of the ditch crossings on the Low Ground. A few hours later when I was locking up Visitors Centre, I was puzzled to see that the camera has rotated 180o around the post and not pointing at where the geese where. I thought it was something innocent like one of the Highlands had brushed past it and moved the camera round but what the footage showed was that the Koniks had found the camera very interesting and had sniffed it, licked it and occasionally kick it!
The camera wasn’t damaged and unsurprisingly no geese were recorded but there is some great pony footage, which hopefully you will be able to watch in the centre soon!
I have now put the camera back out on the Low Ground but with a bit of protection around it this time.
We’ll wait to see what the camera records but in the mean time, here’s the results of the WeBs count from this morning: Pink-footed Goose 5,000, Brent Goose 2, Ringed Plover 4, Cormorant 7, Curlew 31, Gadwall 8, Goldeneye 114, Golden Plover 1, Great-crested Grebe 9, Grey Heron 15, Lapwing 424, Mallard 169, Mute Swan 261, Whooper Swan 2, Red-breasted Merganser 8, Shoveller 19, Tufted Duck 116. Not counted on WeBs but definitely here are: Teal, Wigeon, Greenshank, Wheatear, Moorhen.
Finally, a BIG thank you to Nick and Rose who have been with us for the past 4 weeks and been huge help while they've been here! We'll miss you!