Barnacle geese in Lancashire

The current unprecedented influx of Russian white-fronted geese into the UK has grabbed the birding headlines recently, but perhaps overlooked in all of the excitement has been the apparent influx of barnacle geese. A couple of weeks ago I spent nearly a week birding in North Lancashire and in amongst the white-fronts were unusually large numbers of barnacles, with several double figure counts and some flocks of 60 or more. I've also been told of other flocks elsewhere in the UK away from traditional wintering grounds.

Last week I stopped at the Wildfowlers pull in on Marine Drive, Southport hoping to see a reported Todd's Canada goose. There were lots of pink-footed geese spread all across the marsh, especially in the taller grasses making picking out any scarcer species quite problematic, yet even so I managed to find five Russian white-fronts. I also spotted lots of barnacle geese in the grass and then a scan across the distant marsh revealed a larger flock of at least 61 birds which are in the composite photo attached. In total I counted at least 75 barnacle geese, but there were probably considerably more. My previous largest count on the Ribble was 32 birds way back in 1993, but that was exceptional for me, more typically I rarely see double figures on the saltmarsh. 

Photo: Barnacle geese
Knowsley Safari Park June 2025.

The problem with these barnacles in Lancashire is that unlike Russian white-fronts, there are sizeable free flying feral populations in the North West. The largest I'm aware of is at Knowsley Safari Park where back in June last year I counted 297 adults with 65 goslings. However, I don't think these birds range in any large numbers much further than the farmland around the safari park, e.g. in 43 years birding at Pennington Flash just 10 miles down the road, I've only ever seen five single barnacles at the site. There are occasional records of odd birds from Knowsley reaching much further afield, such as singles in Oxfordshire and Surrey in 2022, but I very much doubt that the Knowsley population accounts for the large numbers currently being seen in Lancashire. I believe that there is also a much smaller feral population at Blackpool Zoo, but I'm not sure how far these birds move and there are probably not nearly enough birds there to account for the numbers currently being seen. 

Photo: Barnacle goose at Pennington Flash,
ringed at Knowsley Safari Park

An interesting feature of the current influx of barnacles is the fact that so far no marked birds have been seen. Obviously the birds in my photo at the top of this post are far too distant to see any rings, but plenty of others have been much closer. A large proportion of the feral Knowsley flock carry yellow plastic rings put on by the Waterbird Colour Marking Group to monitor the movement of feral geese in the UK and beyond. Whilst a lack of rings or other markings might appear to prove nothing, we would surely expect at least some yellow rings to be seen if they were from the Knowsley population? Likewise, a fair number of birds from Svalbard and Greenland also have colour rings. The population with the least bling is from Novaya Zemlya in arctic Russia.

So taking everything into account, and given that these barnacles appeared at the same time as the influx of Russian white-fronted geese, it seem reasonable to assume that like the white-fronts they are birds which have been displaced for whatever reason from the Netherlands and are not birds from the overwintering Solway population, which breed in Svalbard, or the Hebrides, which breed in Greenland. Barnacles geese which winter in the Netherlands breed in artic Russia.

It would be great to find some ringed individuals.

First wheatear of the year, Great Orme

An overnighter in my favourite Llandudno hotel last night following a long day on Anglesey yesterday, so I was up at sunrise today and headed straight for the Great Orme. It was a very different day to yesterday, bright with light winds and no rain. Lots of good stuff today especially on the water below the cliffs on the east side. Undoubted highlight however, was a cracking male wheatear which sat on the wall on Marine drive near the boulder strewn gully. It didn't give me enough time to get my camera out before it dropped down on the seaward side of the wall and I didn't see it again, despite spending an hour in the area searching. Plenty of stonechat activity around the gully to keep me entertained as I waited, with several males in full song which is always a pleasure. Amazingly, the wheatear is the first recorded in the UK in 2026, or at least the first reported to Birdguides. Certainly it's my earliest ever by two weeks and the first I've ever seen in February.

A couple of weeks ago I reported that auks were gathering on the water under the cliffs ahead of the breeding season, but I was referring to guillemots and razorbills. I didn't see any black guillemots at the time, but that all changed today with at least 14 on the water. Odd that there were no black gillys last time, since they are much more coastal than their cousins so I would have thought they'd be around all winter.

I don't see common scoter that often from the Great Orme so this close flyby was a very welcome sight.

A very much alive Little Auk, Trearddur Bay

Is it too early to call bird of the year? You tell me. 

At half the size of a puffin, this little auk is about the same size as a starling. They breed in the High Arctic and spend their winters miles out in the open ocean usually beyond sight of land. Just occasionally a run of strong northerly winds in late autumn brings them closer and gives land based birders the opportunity of seeing them fly past, especially from headlands along the east coast of the UK. At such times they are usually still very distant and only really identifiable by their black underwings, assuming that you can keep your scope steady enough in the teeth of a gale which is straight off the arctic and which cuts you in half it's so cold. In 50+ years birding I've only ever seen them on one day, way back in November 1985, when I saw four fly past Flamborough Head near Bridlington.

Today I happened to be birding near Holyhead on a bleak day on Anglesey, with strong winds gusting up to 49mph, heavy drizzle and poor visibility due to mist and dark clouds. There was not much moving and most birds were hunkered down out of the wind. I checked birdguides for the umpteenth time not expecting much, but this time I couldn't believe it. There was a little auk less than two miles away at Trearddur Bay! This I couldn't miss and eight minutes later I was pulling up at the lifeboat station in the village. 

I expected the bird to be a couple of hundred metres out in the bay, but I could see a handful of other birders on the beach who looked like they were pointing their cameras at something much closer. Then suddenly I saw what looked like a black and white rubber duck bobbing along on the water, just a few metres offshore in front of its admirers, a tiny bird being buffeted by the waves. I grabbed my camera and legged it down to the beach, where I watched it in amazement for a short while before it drifted a little further out.

 

Moribund some called it, but it didn't look at the point of death to me as I watched it dive a couple of times. Then suddenly it flew up into the teeth of the gale and rose high, before turning and heading off over the houses and away in the direction of the Inland Sea. Exactly what it's future is I can't say, but there was still a lot of life left in it when I last saw it and these are tough little birds. Hopefully it will rest up a while and then get back to its mates. A really exhilarating and breathtaking experience! It'll probably be the birding highlight of the year for me.

Female lesser scaup, Woolston Eyes

A female lesser scaup, apparently back for it's third year, has been at Woolston Eyes for a week or so, occasionally frequenting No. 3 bed but mainly on the canal off No.1 bed which is all but inaccessible except from a difficult footpath accessed from Lymm. Fortunately today it was back on No. 3. 

Russian white-front still Lightshaw

The single Russian white-front was again with five greylags at Lightshaw Flash this morning, it flew in from the direction of Pennington flash at 10.25am, though I didn't see it at Pennington during a brief look earlier. Also on Lightshaw eight goosander including three drakes and five little egrets still in horse paddocks behind Byrom Hall.

Red ringed Great white egret Lightshaw Flash

The great white egret with a red ring was again at Lightshaw Flash this morning. It appears to have white writing on the ring, but as far as I know it's not been read yet. It's been around for ages between Lightshaw Flash, Bickershaw & Pennington Flash. I suspect it's from Avalon marshes, Somerset, but unfortunately red with white writing virtually rules out any chance of me reading it unless it's at point blank range which it so far hasn't been. 

Also at Lightshaw this morning, a single Russian white-fronted goose still with greylags and a Mediterranean gull calling. The white-front and greylags were also seen flying over Pennington Flash earlier this morning.

Partially leucistic marsh harrier, Martin Mere

There's been a remarkable looking female marsh harrier at Martin Mere for at least a month, but before today I'd not even managed a good look at it let alone a decent photo. Still not great photos but at least they give the general idea of how the bird looks.

From a distance it's a very brown and white looking bird to such an extent that it was reported as an osprey at the start of its stay. Some have suggested that it's an old female, but while I can understand the logic that the yellow bits might go a lot paler with age, this bird has pale patches in areas where there are not normally pale patches on typical female marsh harriers, especially on it's breast and underwing.

In my opinion its' a partially leucistic marsh harrier. 

More Russian white-fronts, this time High Rid

The Russian white-fronted goose influx is showing no signs of abating, with another 40 today at High Rid reservoir near Horwich. I hate round numbers, it makes it seem like you're guessing when actually it was exactly 40 birds. On the other hand, if you say "I saw 6,548 woodpigeons fly over Billinge Hill" you invite a sarcastic comment such as "Are you sure that it wasn't 6,549?". Anyway, I digress, the point is I hate round numbers and believe me, if I could have got it to 41 white-fronts I would have done. 

Unfortunately the birds were over the brow of the hill which meant that in order to see them you needed to stand next to the boat club containers which were on the opposite side of the reservoir to the field with the geese. This had some advantages because there was a bitterly cold easterly wind today and the containers offered decent protection, but it meant that the birds were 500m away.

Geese, and especially white-fronts, are amongst my favourite birds, so when this influx started to happen a couple of weeks ago, I set out to make sure that I didn't miss out. I told myself that I wasn't going to be the guy who only saw one Russian white-front in 2026. I feel like I've achieved that goal, especially having found a flock of 30 at Lightshaw the other day, but to put my efforts into perspective, in the past two weeks I've seen a total of 595 Russian white-fronted geese. Two days ago a field near Pilling held a single flock of 670! Oh well, at least I saw 595. Imagine if it had added up to 600.....

Spike Island

I had a nice fly past of the seemingly resident ruddy shelduck at Spike Island, Widnes today, the first time I've managed to see it. Ruddy shelduck isn't officially on the British list, though it seems to me that there are a few far more dodgy birds which have made it on. Chinese pond heron anyone? Always nice birds to see though.

There were several black-headed gulls with blue rings, some of which which I managed to read. All but one were originally ringed at Spike Island and seemingly not keen on moving very far because most of the recoveries were from the same place. The exception was the bird on the left, 202B, which was originally ringed at Vaterland, Oslo in May 2012, a distance of 1,103km from Spike Island. 

The colour ring on this bird was only fitted when it was retrapped in 2021 so prior to this it was more difficult to be sure of it's movements.

Unfortunately I don't know how old it was when it was originally ringed but it's at least 14 years old this year. Most of the records of this bird have been from Spike Island but in two summers since having the colour ringed fitted, 2022 and 2025, it was seen back in Norway and presumably breeding.  If it's been going back and forth all of it's life, that would mean that it has travelled at least 28,678km during it's lifetime, or if you prefer,  17,819 miles.

Grey Partridge

Grey partridge at Fiddler's Ferry this morning.

Signs of spring on the Great Orme

It may have been a cold and dull mid-February visit to the Great Orme but there were still plenty of signs of spring and better days to come! The cliffs are no longer completely empty, because here and there on the ledges I could see the white shapes of fulmars already on their nests and occasionally one would glide past me. I saw my first ever fulmar on the Great Orme way back in 1973, an unbelievable 53 years ago, and at the time my Dad told me the story of how his brother, my uncle, had once climbed up to a fulmar nest and been squirted with smelly oil! Served him right in my opinion.

On the water there has been a clear build up of auks since my last visit in January, with rafts of them sitting at the base of the cliffs. 

At the moment the majority seem to be the jet black razorbills with just a handful of the dark grey guillemots, and it was noticeable that so many were in full breeding plumage already.

I don't know anything about the ecology of these auks, do they pair for life or is this rafting part of the process of finding a mate? I'm not sure, but there didn't seem to be any aggression between rivals, they just sat there bobbing up and down on the water. What the trigger is for them to go onto the cliffs I can't say, probably just consistently better weather I suppose. Nobody wants to be clinging onto a cliff with your offspring still in an egg, in the teeth of a gale I guess....