Saturday 16 February 2013

European White-fronted Goose Old Coach Road

You know it's been a good day when you can't decide if Waxwings on your doorstep are the highlight! This afternoon I decided to get the bike out for the first time this year, and headed off down the bypass. I bumped into Damian in Dairy Farm Road, who told me that there was a large flock of Pink-footed Geese in the fields where Dairy Farm Road joins the Old Coach Road. He was right, I would estimate easily 3000 birds. The sun was against me so I tried to outflank them by going down the farm track / public footpath to the right of the field and they didn't seem particularly worried, and most just carried on feeding. Eventually I got into a good position and scanned through them.

I always find scanning through a settled flock of Pink-feet to be quite a relaxing experience, their soft chunnering is quite reassuring and calming. Then one looked straight at me and it had a white forehead. Surely a White-front? However some Pink-feet can show quite a lot of white and I wanted to see more to be sure. I needn't have worried, after a minute or two it walked into full view and I could clearly see black barring on its belly, and the sharp contrast of the black on pale brown made this a European White-front rather than the darker Greenland White-front. Excellent, only my second ever European White-front in St Helens.

Year 134


European White-fronted Goose with Pink-footed Geese.


The flock coming in to land, Old Coach Road. Green Lane, Catchdale Moss.

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2 comments:

  1. Damianp16 February 2013 at 17:31

    Oh yeah - I forgot to mention that one! I was thinking when I was looking at the flock that it'd be nice to scan through them but in all honesty I wouldn't have recognised that anyway! Well done Colin. I went for a look for the waxwing at around 4.15 but couldn't see them. Damian.

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  2. Colin Davies16 February 2013 at 20:29

    White-fronts are pretty easy if you get a reasonable view, white face and black barring on their bellies, the only real difficulty is deciding between European and Greenland race.
    The Waxwings have been present for at least 3 days so there is a good chance they might be there tomorrow, though the berries are dwindling rapidly.

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