Pale-bellied brent geese, Hilbre Island

Photo: Pale-bellied brent goose,
ringed in North Wales.

There's been record counts of pale-bellied brent geese at Hilbre this winter, with over 400 birds present. Today we counted 408 plus at least 3 dark-bellied brent. The flock includes at least one bird ringed in Arctic Canada, two from Iceland and one ringed in North Wales.

Pale-bellied brent are not that common in England, the majority of brent are dark-bellied from Arctic Russia which winter on the south and east coast. Pale-bellied brent breed in Greenland and winter in Ireland, but there is an overspill to Wales, western England and Scotland.

Photo: Dark-bellied brent goose.

Photo: Dark and pale-bellied brent geese.

Belted Kingfisher, River Ribble

The Ribble's near mythical belted kingfisher which has been just upriver of Brockholes, opposite Redscar Wood, since at least 8th November, finally gave itself up to a wider audience today.

Before today it was as elusive as a sighting of Father Christmas because despite extensive searches of the river by a dedicated band of experienced birders over a nearly three week period it's only been seen very briefly on one further occasion since the initial sighting. This is partly because large parts of the river are inaccessible, private or just downright dangerous in places, and there's even been stories about birders being injured in tough and difficult terrain when trying to get down to the river. 

Largely because of these issues there's been some uncertainty surrounding the bird, with the only photo available being of poor quality leading some commentators to suggest that it was actually a photograph of a great tit! It didn't look much like a great tit to me but neither could I be sure that there was a belted kingfisher in the photo. 

So when the bird was reported again this morning for the first time in 11 days I almost didn't bother going because I was so certain that I had no chance of seeing a belted kingfisher today, let alone surviving to tell the story. However thank goodness I did go, because this was certainly no great tit!

I parked at Preston Crematorium and then a short walk was followed by a scramble down a steep cliff to the banks of the river. It wasn't so much the steepness of the cliff that was the problem, it was the fact that it's a mud slide down to the river, and great care was required. 

The bird was on show about 200m down river when I arrived but after a few minutes it flew towards us and past us calling as it went before perching on top of a hawthorn bush on the other side of the river about 100m away. It stayed here for another 5 minutes or so, often displaying its crest before flying across the river to our side but frustratingly out of view.

Over the next 30 minutes it was seen well both in flight and perched until I decided to leave at about 14:30. I believe that it remained here until about 14:50 when it disappeared east along the river and was not seen again all day. If previous form is anything to go by that'll be the last sighting until about mid December. 

My first in the UK but I have seen them on both my trips to New York in 2009 & 2012. This brings my UK list to 438 and my North West list to 374. A great bird and well done to the original finder and also the locals who persevered with the search even when it seemed a lost cause. It's the fifth for the UK with the last "twitchable" bird in Staffordshire in 2005, though there was a single day bird on the Isles of Scilly in 2018.

Altcar Withens

There's currently a few thousand geese feeding on fields at Altcar Withens, just outside Formby. Two days ago the snow goose was with them, but I didn't see it yesterday or today. Amazing how a large white bird can go missing for long periods, especially when it's associating with the well watched Lancashire Pink-footed geese flocks. Prior to Sunday it hadn't been reported since 28th October! I'm pretty sure that it wasn't in the Rainford area during that period because I and others have watched that area extensively over the past few weeks so where's it been? And where's it gone now? If it was feeding here two days ago with all of these geese, you'd surely think that it was a reasonable bet that it would still be here?

Snow Bunting, Southport

Four immaculate snow bunting are on the shore at Southport at the moment, just north of the pier, showing very well.

Bearded Tits on the grit trays, Leighton Moss

Just for change from all of the goose action recently, Elaine and I headed up to Silverdale and did one of our favourite walks from the Leighton Moss saltmarsh car park to Crag Foot, through Grisedale Wood, down to Leighton Hall, across the public causeway at Leighton Moss, around the reserve, over Woodwell cliff to Gibraltar farm, around Jack Scout to Jenny Brown's Point and across the saltmarsh back to the car. I beautiful walk on a glorious day.

Todd's Canada goose, Rockcliffe Marsh, Cumbria

Another day spent at Rockcliffe Marsh watching the impressive barnacle goose flocks, and today I finally came up trumps and managed to find a few different birds. 

It just goes to show how vast this area is and how difficult viewing can be that despite spending nearly three full days scanning through these flocks, it was only in the last half hour before I left for home that I spotted that for which I had been searching, the Holy Grail, a cracking Todd's Canada goose. It was a moment of high elation I can tell you and goodness knows what anybody who saw me would have thought. A lone figure standing for hours near Esk Boat House in a slushy mixture of mud, water and cow sh#t, silent and motionless, unmoved in the teeth of a gale and battered by heavy showers, relentlessly watching, who suddenly leapt up, punched the air and shouted "a f*!king Todd's!" and then returned to his silent vigil. But that's exactly how it was.

What a stunning bird it was, it had everything including a long and ridiculously thin snake like neck. A classic Todd's and hands down bird of the trip this week.

Ross's x barnacle goose hybrid at Rockcliffe Marsh, Cumbria

Today I came across this remarkable looking hybrid goose on Rockcliffe Marsh on the English Solway, with 500 barnacle geese. It's similar in size and structure to barnacle goose but it has pink legs and bill, with a dark back and flanks and my initial impression was that the most likely parentage was either blue phase lesser snow goose x barnacle or Ross's goose x barnacle. My problem with the latter was that the dark flanks seem to indicate that one of the parents must be a blue phase bird, but blue phase Ross's goose is extremely rare to the extent that some authorities consider that they only exist because they are themselves likely Ross's x blue phase lesser snow goose hybrids.  Only 1 in 10,000 Ross's geese are blue.

However, having discussed the bird with @BirdHybrids my concerns about the dark flanks and back seem to be unfounded. They have commented "Ross's x barnacle hybrids typically (not always) show dark flanks. Presumably the genes for dark flanks are carried by all Ross's geese and are just not normally expressed in pure [white] birds - hybrids often show characters that aren't present on either parent.". Furthermore, Ross's x barnacle hybrids are often slightly larger than either Ross's or barnacle, as appears to be the case with this bird. This in itself is interesting and leads to further questions. For example, why would all Ross's geese carry the genes for dark flanks when blue Ross's geese are virtually unknown and may only be hybrids themselves?

It also begs the question, is this bird the result of a wild pairing or was one or both parents feral or escapes from a collection? The bird is unringed and with huge flocks of wild geese, around 15,000 across the wider marsh, but the barnacles wintering on Solway breed in Svalbard whereas Ross's goose and lesser snow goose are from North America. However there was also a North American vagrant Canada goose with the flock (Todd's).

It's not unknown for escaped geese to join up with wild flocks and often accompany them back to their breeding grounds, so perhaps at some point an escaped or feral Ross's goose has paired up with a wild barnacle? Personally I prefer to believe that both parents were wild, but we'll never know for sure. Whatever it's parentage and origin, it's a great looking bird and one which I was delighted to see. For further reading on blue Ross's goose from an American birder, I recommend this blog post (opens in a new window).

A very similar looking bird was photographed in Norfolk in 2009 and this bird or one very like it has been seen in the Caerlaverock area for several years.

Rockcliffe Marsh

Rockcliffe Marsh on the English Solway is a vast expanse of saltmarsh stretching almost as far as the eye can see, and most of it is private and inaccessible. However, if you can find a spot to park there are places where you can get a view over the marsh and the spectacle today was quite breathtaking, with an estimated 15,000 barnacle geese and another 1000 pink-foots. From a distance the barnacles stand out like freshly fallen hailstone on a bright day in early spring, but when they fly their numbers are so vast that they look almost like a murmuration of starlings and the noise is deafening.

Powfoot and Caerlaverock

The Solway Firth has long been one of my favourite winter birding areas yet despite being a regular visitor for over 40 years, it was only last year that I first visited the coastal village of Powfoot just a couple of miles outside Annan. I loved it so much that it was my first choice when I was looking for a holiday cottage to stay for a few nights this week. The cottage I booked is ideal, right on the estuary, I can birdwatch from my front room window and watch the thousands of waders as they come and go with the tide, whilst in the evening shortly after dusk I can stand outside and hear the evocative calls of geese as they fly over the village to roost. A very atmospheric place.

It's also only a 20 minute drive to Caerlaverock National Nature reserve which is the jewel in the crown of this area. Right in the heart of the NNR is Caerlaverock Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust reserve which is always the place I head for first. However today the hides were very quiet and I didn't stay long because all of the action seemed to be in the surrounding area, plus I've really gone off hides especially in these post covid days. I want to be out in wide open spaces not cooped up in a hide with other birders who may or may not take Covid seriously.

However, on the approach road to the WWT centre I came across a flock of around 5000 barnacle and 300 pink-footed geese and in total I estimated about 7000 barnacles in the area. Then I parked just past Caerlaverock castle and walked along the coast for a couple of miles back towards the WWT centre. It was a tremendous experience with wide open views and the wild calls of waders, and best of all I saw two hen harriers, a female and a young male, plus a merlin and some twite.

Scoter at Musselburgh

I'm having a short winter break in south west Scotland this week, based at Powfoot near Annan, and this morning I drove up to Musselburgh near Edinburgh for a look at the sea ducks. About a week ago the white-winged scoter returned for it's third winter here and there are also three surf scoters with the flocks of velvet scoter. 

Whilst they're nowhere near as far out as the scoter on the Welsh coast, they are still distant and a scope is essential. Even then it's not easy with the birds constantly diving, chasing each other around and disappearing in the swell and any amount of wind shaking the tripod makes it virtually impossible. Despite the viewing difficulties and the similarities with velvet scoter, the white-winged scoter still stands out pretty well given a half decent view. It's not just the bill shape and colour and the more prominent white tick behind the eye, the white-winged scoter has a different jizz which is noticeable even at distance. It looks slightly larger, it's bull necked and it has a head profile more like an eider due to it's long swollen bill. It also sometimes swims in a different way with it's head held forward. It's a cracking bird and I was pleased to be able to pick it out for myself today and then get everybody else onto it.

I love birding in this area, quite apart from the scoter I must have seen 30 long-tailed ducks, mainly all drakes in spectacular plumage, as well as lots if Eider, mergansers and red-throated divers, plus waders and a small flock of twite.

Despite the poor quality of the photos the white-winged scoter clearly stands out, having a pink bill as opposed to the yellow bill of the velvets. Also the extent of colour in the bill is less than on the velvets, and even in the photo above you can see the different head profile. Velvet scoter has a more concave bill whereas the white-winged scoter has an eider like profile. In the photo above it's obviously the righthand bird. Is it my imagination or does the head colour of the American bird seem blacker than the velvets? This seems to be consistent across all of my photos but it's probably not much use in the field unless you it had close views in perfect weather, in which case the other identification features would render the head colour irrelevant!

White-tailed plover, Blacktoft RSPB

I know what your thinking, "He's back again! Is this guy obsessed with the white-tailed plover?". I do understand, but please bear with me. 

First off, I've got a job near Goole until at least the end of December and possibly for the rest of the winter so photos of the white-tailed plover are likely to keep appearing here. Blacktoft is just a 10 minute drive away from my hotel and it's either this or go back to my room.

But secondly and more importantly, when the bird first turned up at Blacktoft at the end of September it was in full moult and was just about the scruffiest individual I've ever seen, making even last years bearded vulture look well presented. It's a very different bird now and seems to be approaching full plumage, with a smart silvery grey breast and pinkish tones to its white underparts. Quite stunning in fact. Hopefully it will stay all winter.

If your memories of the bird are something like this then I recommend another visit. This was the plover on 2nd September, about a week after it was first seen. If ever proof was needed of why it's always worth a second (and third and fourth) look at a long staying bird then this is surely it. I reckon if you've only seen it like this then you've only got half a tick. To get the full tick you need to see it now.

Pink-footed geese, Bickerstaffe

Having decimated the fields at the north end of the Old Coach Road, the pink-footed goose flock in the Rainford area has now moved to fields behind the Sandpiper at Bickerstaffe, where today I estimated 5000 birds. Still nothing different with the flock unfortunately, but an exhilarating experience non-the-less.

Dairy Farm Road had five corn buntings and a few yellowhammers and skylarks, whilst at Moss Lane an adult peregrine mobbed a buzzard on a pylon.

Pink-footed geese

There have been impressive numbers of pink-footed geese in the Rainford area over the past week, with numbers peaking at an estimated 10,000 birds on Saturday. They're feeding mainly on harvested potato fields or maize and I've spent hours watching them. For the time being they seem to have deserted the fields in the Crawford and Kings Moss area and are now concentrated around the north end of the Old Coach Road. The Todd's Canada goose has not been seen since 2nd November and in fact amazingly, despite these high numbers of geese, I've not been able to find a single individual of any other species, not even feral birds which often accompany the flocks. I've also not seen a single bird with a neck collar. Wild geese are an incredible spectacle, up there with the greatest of wildlife experiences, and we are so lucky to have them on our doorstep.

Trouble at the pig pen

These little egrets were having a squabble today in a pig field at Ince near Ellesmere Port.

About five were following a pig around and every so often they would sky point like gannets, often holding crests erect and would then face off before jumping into the air almost like fighting cocks. 

I watched them do this several times over a period of 15 minutes. I've never seen anything quite like it before.

The Rainford Mosslands

Today I spent all day, from sunrise to sunset on the mosslands around Rainford, checking out the local goose flocks. No sign of the recent Todd's Canada goose or any other unusual geese, but it was great to see so many pink-footed geese, I estimate about 4,500 birds in total which included one large flock of 4,000 birds on fields just north of Siding lane. Also today two whooper swans, one at Kings Moss and the other with the flock at Siding lane. Eight corn buntings were on wires in Dairy Farm road, 5 grey partridge on Kings Moss, 50 fieldfare near Billinge hill and lots of redwings across the area.

Todd's Canada Goose, Crawford Village, Lancs

After a no show yesterday in weather that was nearly as bad as Sunday, the Todd's Canada goose which was found late on Saturday was today back on fields just to the east of Crawford village in south west Lancs, and it showed very well with a few hundred pink-footed geese. It's around the same size or slightly larger than the pink-feet with a darker breast and shorter neck than the familiar feral Canada's, and when it has its head down feeding it can be quite difficult to pick out from the flock. It's clearly not the bird that I saw at Banks Marsh (link opens in a new window) which was much darker, slightly larger and longer necked than this.

These days the goose formerly known as Canada is split into two species, cackling goose Branta hutchinsii and Canada goose Branta canadensis. The size of this bird combined with other features such as the large bill seems to rule out any race of cackling goose, therefore it must be a race of Canada goose. Determining exactly which race it is with any degree of confidence is extremely difficult due to variations in size and plumage which are further complicated by possible hybridisation between races, therefore these potential vagrant geese are perhaps best grouped together as "North American Canada geese".

However Todd's Canada goose  B.c. interior is the most likely vagrant to the UK and although this individual is perhaps at the smaller end, it seems to fit that race pretty closely in size, structure and plumage. The next most likely vagrant is the race confusingly known as lesser Canada goose, B.c. parvipes, but the bird is perhaps a little too big for parvipes and it has a black line on the chin strap which is apparently also not a good fit for that race. 

Whatever race it is, given that it's in a flock of pink-feet with no feral birds present, there's no reason to believe that this is anything other than a genuine vagrant North American Canada goose.

Edit 13/11/2021 - What looks like the same bird has been seen today with 7000 pink-footed geese at Docking, Norfolk. The link opens Twitter in a new window.