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Greenland White-fronts - Marston STW
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Author:  Andrew Chick [ Sun Nov 22, 2015 5:46 pm ]
Post subject:  Greenland White-fronts - Marston STW
Marston STW 22.11.2015

Greenland White-fronts 3
Greylags Goose 294
Curlew 11

For images of the geese see twitter - https://twitter.com/snowboundsheep/stat ... 4832555010
Author:  Andrew Chick [ Mon Nov 23, 2015 10:09 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Greenland White-fronts - Marston STW
Still present today.

Suggest anyone visiting the site, parks in the carpark and walks around the reserve to see the birds, rather than blocking the back lane.

Some excellent photo's at https://twitter.com/46Godo/status/668845594413293569

Andrew
Author:  Benjamin Ward [ Wed Nov 25, 2015 6:18 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Greenland White-fronts - Marston STW
The Greenland White-fronted Geese found on Sunday morning by Dave Roberts were still present today, until lunchtime at least.

Also;

Cetti’s Warbler 2
Chiffchaff 1
Water Rail 4+
Green Sandpiper 2
Curlew 11
Grey Wagtail 2
Lesser Redpoll 60+

With Col Scott

Regards,
Ben
Author:  David Morison [ Thu Nov 26, 2015 3:32 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Greenland White-fronts - Marston STW
Still present this morning (see album). Several Water Rail with one calling in the ditch next to the car park and a good number of Lesser Redpoll in the large Birch in a garden at the entrance to Hougham Mill Lane.

David
Author:  James Hewson [ Fri Nov 27, 2015 8:47 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Greenland White-fronts - Marston STW
The birds werre still present this morning, but a bit distant.
Many thanks to Dave Roberts for pointing them out to me.

James
Author:  Richard Jackson [ Sun Nov 29, 2015 8:16 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Greenland White-fronts - Marston STW
Initially could not find the Greenland White-fronts this morning and they were not with the sizable flock of Greylag Geese.

Thankfully the three birds flew in from the south at about 11am and settled in the field next to the car park and behind the hide.

Also Cetti's Warbler and Water Rail both seen/heard.

Richard.
Author:  Graham Catley [ Mon Nov 30, 2015 4:31 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Greenland White-fronts - Marston STW
This record seemed rather odd in location and the fact that GWF is such a rare bird in Lincolnshire but it seems that the persistent westerly gales in the North Atlantic in recent weeks may have produced a major displacement of GWF as well as Whooper Swans; picked this up from Bird Forum (apologies if i stole it)

suspect these birds are shifting east as the winds have been unfavourable for them to reach Ireland/Britain so far. Same thing is happening with the Icelandic Whooper Swans and Greenland White-fronted Geese.

Only c2,000 of 8,000 of the latter have arrived at Wexford Wildfowl Reserve so far this autumn and these have been tracked flying east to western Norway, moving south and then returning back to Ireland.

Clearly there has been a massive drift of Whooper Swans to the East coast and beyond? with exceptional movements south at Spurn and good numbers past Gib, where there are far fewer observers, and these GWF were presumably part of the drift.

a single adult GWF dropped in at Alkborough on Saturday afternoon with 13 Greylags; it is impossible to know where Greylags come from when you have 1500 birds locally but the fact that the Marston birds are also with Greylags may hint? at them being of Icelandic origin or maybe the GWF are used to seeing Greylags and don't know the difference between ferals and wild birds. The Alkborough bird is also an adult the leat likely age group to be drifted on migration so the weather must have been pretty severe. Apart from a party of 6 adult GWF that spent 2 months on the upper Humber in Jan - feb 2012 al of the recent records up here have been of first-winetr birds with Pink-feet.

Clearly worth checking any flocks of local geese as these birds seem to be joining up with anything that looks like a compatriot.

images of the Alkborough bird here

http://pewit.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/gre ... goose.html
Author:  Andrew Chick [ Mon Nov 30, 2015 5:39 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Greenland White-fronts - Marston STW
The greylags at Marston STW are 100% feral and the flock has been at around 250-300 birds for the last year or so. For the last two years there has been a single pink-footed goose with them, and over the years they have pulled in the odd wild birds, including European White-fronts in Nov 2011.

The fact that the three adults Greenland White-fronts have remained in Marston STW is little short of remarkable particularly in the Lincolnshire context. The following is a list of Lincolnshire records from 1997 - 2013. It shows how rare this race is in Lincs, but also shows that the last long stayers (in 2012) were also all adults?

1997 - juv at Gib Point Mar 13th
1998 - No birds recorded
1999 - No birds recorded
2000 - single adult at Winterington Oct 8-26th
2001 - 1st winter at Winterington Jan 24 and Roxby Jan 28-29th
2002 - No birds recorded
2003 - No birds recorded
2004 - No birds recorded
2005 - No birds recorded
2006 - No birds recorded
2007 - No birds recorded
2008 - No birds recorded
2009 - No birds recorded
2010 - 1 juv at Seacroft (Gib Point) Dec 19th-22nd
2011 - 1 juv on the Humber (Winteringham/South Ferriby area) Jan 9th and same West Halton Jan 13th and Reads Island Feb 27th
2012 - 6 adults at Alkborough Jan/Feb and a juv at Bagmoor/Winteringham Feb 4th-12th
2013 - No birds recorded

In conclusion, I strongly believe that the only rational explanation is that they are waiting for Alex Lees to return home for the Christmas break, so he can add them to his Marston STW list.
Author:  Alex Lees [ Mon Nov 30, 2015 8:21 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Greenland White-fronts - Marston STW
Andrew Chick wrote:
In conclusion, I strongly believe that the only rational explanation is that they are waiting for Alex Lees to return home for the Christmas break, so he can add them to his Marston STW list.


Still 24 long days to go.... but fingers crossed...
Author:  David Morison [ Tue Dec 01, 2015 5:16 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Greenland White-fronts - Marston STW
Still there this morning feeding with the Greylags. All sent skywards for a while by a passing Helicopter enabling a closer view of size difference with Greylags. Although they are hanging around the Greylags they tend to keep themselves to themselves - even in flight.

David
Author:  Hugh Middleton [ Wed Dec 02, 2015 4:33 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Greenland White-fronts - Marston STW
Still there today

Hugh
Author:  Paul Smith [ Sat Dec 05, 2015 1:33 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Greenland White-fronts - Marston STW
Still present with the greylag flock this morning in field directly opposite the car park.
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