White-front spectacular in North Lancs.

With ever increasing flocks of Russian white-fronted geese being reported at various locations in North Lancs over the past few days there was only ever going to be one place for me to go today. 

I headed first for Bradshaw lane on Pilling Moss where yesterday 500+ white-fronts had been reported in a single field. Parking is difficult down here and viewing almost impossible, but miraculously I managed to find a spot for one car and then walked down a track for 100m which gave me an open view of the field where the goose flock was, albeit at a distance of about 500m (1/3 mile). The wind was blowing on a dull day with occasional showers and viewing was still difficult at that range, but even so I managed to count at least 300 white-fronts and a few barnacles in amongst the pink-footed geese. 

The largest flock of Russian white-fronts I have ever seen is 3000+ at Slimbridge back in 1983, but since then I've never managed more than 150 even at Slimbridge, so to get 300+ in North Lancs where the species is historically quite scarce was a thrill to say the least. Prior to this year my highest count anywhere in Lancashire was 23 at Marshside in 1993, but more usually I'm lucky to see more than two or three a year in the county. 300+ is just mind blowing and an experience not to be missed. It may never happen again in my lifetime.

Nearby just south of Stronkey I counted 67 white-fronts with 1500 pink-footed geese and then I moved on to Cockersands Abbey, which is where most of the photos in this post were taken with the exception of the last two. 

There were no geese at all in the field where we had seen so many on Sunday, but on that walk two days ago we had also come across 38 white-fronts just east of Crook farm. Since I could hear the murmur of geese on the ground in that direction, I decided to check out the area again.

There was a large flock of geese on the ground near Crook farm, as well as 100 whooper swans. In total I counted 61 white-fronted geese here as well as 60 barnacle geese and 1000 pink-feet.

The barnacle geese are also here in unprecedented numbers and will have originated from the same areas as the white-fronts. These are not from the Svalbard population which winters on the Solway or from the Greenland population which I see every year on Barra and overwinters on the Hebrides, these are from the Russian population which overwinters in Germany and Holland.

Yesterday there had been well over 100 white-fronts at Stake Pool near Pilling but despite finding a large flock of pink-feet I could only see two white-fronts. Frustratingly these were the closest geese I saw all day and contained the least interest! Not that pink-feet aren't interesting of course, but you know what I mean, it would have been nice if there had been 100 white-fronts and 50 barnacles with them!

Russian white-fronted goose with pink-feet.