In reply to GillP:
Gill P said: Hi Mary, Brent Geese are generally winter visitors and, according to my books, usually in Ireland or south east England, so your sighting would seem a bit unusual! Crossed post with Robbo. Gill
Hi Mary, Brent Geese are generally winter visitors and, according to my books, usually in Ireland or south east England, so your sighting would seem a bit unusual!
Crossed post with Robbo.
Gill
Thank You too Gill for your reply.
EJ's Memorial Balgavies Loch Ospreys 2021
In reply to TeeJay:
TeeJay said: Hi Mary, according to the RSPB some 95000 Brent Geese spend the winter in the UK. It seems that most of the white-bellied race head for Ireland although apparently some do go to Lindisfarne in Northumberland. The dark-bellied race go mainly to the estuaries around the east and south-east coasts of England. As far as I know they don't winter in Scotland so I suspect the birds you saw were on passage to Ireland and had just dropped in for a feed en-route.
Hi Mary, according to the RSPB some 95000 Brent Geese spend the winter in the UK. It seems that most of the white-bellied race head for Ireland although apparently some do go to Lindisfarne in Northumberland. The dark-bellied race go mainly to the estuaries around the east and south-east coasts of England.
As far as I know they don't winter in Scotland so I suspect the birds you saw were on passage to Ireland and had just dropped in for a feed en-route.
TeeJay - it seems I was lucky enough to see these geese on their way to Ireland.
In reply to MaryGK:
Also seen a flock of around 40 of these birds (can watch them from the window of the caravan) before anyone accuses me of stalking them :-). Now I know what these birds are but when I looked at my photograph (I know not really sharp or clear photograph) I could hardly recognise them.
Here is a quiz for you to see who identifies them first.
MaryGK said:Here is a quiz for you to see who identifies them first.
That just depends who's online at the time!
36 Common Redshank, 10 Dunlin, and a single Black-tailed Godwit.
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In reply to Robbo:
Robbo said:Again, from what I've read (and I've not seen any brents in Sept personally), books and website state from October.....so not everything we read is always accurate. (books and websites I mean,, not Roy!)
As is often said, Robbo: "The birds don't read the text books"!
Books and websites will generally (in my experience) give dates for Migrants covering the time between the start of the main arrival, and the time when most have departed - earlier or later migrants will usually occur annually for most species, but only in small numbers (although occasionally weather conditions etc change this).
PS. Don't automatically believe anything that you read on websites either - we all make mistakes sometimes! ;o)
In reply to RoyW:
Just in case anyone's not sure which is which, the Dunlins are the little ones and the Black-tailed Godwit's the bigger one with white wing bars rather than white trailing edges and a square white rump rather than a white wedge up the back. I've indicated the Black-tailed Godwit with a red arrow, and one of the Dunlins with a green one.
My blog: http://mazzaswildside.blogspot.co.uk/
My Flickr page: https://www.flickr.com/photos/124028194@N04/
Oh it was just a bit of fun posting that photo..... won't do it again though!
Aiki - thank YOU for your reply!
In reply to Commanderman:
Wow - geese on bicycles must definitely be a rare sight!