Todd's Canada goose, Banks marsh

I headed out to Banks marsh at Southport today for what I thought would be a nailed on greater snow goose which was found about an hour before I arrived. How could I miss it I thought, a large white goose in amongst a flock of pink-feet with a 10.1m tide approaching and all hiding places covered. As nailed on as it gets. Miss it I did though, in fact nobody saw it after about 9am, it obviously must have flown somewhere before I arrived, though nobody had seen it fly.

However a Todd's Canada goose was found whilst I was there and what a great bird it was, almost better than the snow goose. A really dark bird and clearly not the usual returning individual.

Obviously the breast colour, the neck shape and the size of this bird make it Todd's, but also notice the colouration of the cheek patches compared to the more familiar feral birds.

It's clearly a dusky face rather than white.

There were thousands of waders as the tide approached, mainly knot and dunlin but also a few grey plover and bar-tailed godwits.

These whooper swans were my first of the winter. It didn't feel like winter, temperatures were in the low 20's.