The Lincolnshire Bird Club

A flock of pink foot geese have roosted on the outer shore on Saltfleetby nnr for the past 2 months and have
gone off feeding on various local fields,
This morning I found them c 500 to 600m north of Station road Theddlethorpe settled and feeding
a count revealed 772 pink foot and 2 Greenland whitefronts ( ad and imm )
no colour rings seen .

regards John

The PF Goose flock was again present this morning as per John's details. The 2 presumed flavirostris WF Geese, 1 Ad + 1 juv, were also within this flock. I was there about an hour before most of the flock departed spontaneously and flew a 1/2 mile or so to the NW. I found they could be viewed in fields looking SE from Back Street, although the morning light made discernment of bare part colouration particularly difficult.
Phil

only c 200 PF south of backstreet found today and c1000 m away so did not bother scanning them,
could not find the rest of the flock in the area, but later saw c 300 PF heading south east over foreshore.

regards John

Theddlethorpe, Station Road (late afternoon)
Eurasian White-fronted Goose 1 adult
Greenland White-fronted Goose 1 first winter
Pink-footed Goose 329

Churchill Lane
Snow Bunting c12
Twite c30

Also a Red-breasted Merganser went north and a single skein of c900 Pinkies went high south.

With Dave Roberts

Regards,

Ben

To clear up any confusion, some discussion ensued this evening with regard to the 2 WF Geese in this PF Goose flock. Some good photographs of these geese by Roger Labett may be available later in the album. As noted by Ben and Dave, the adult appears to be nominate (European) albifrons, but the juv appears to be (Greenland) flavirostris. Some variation in bill colour has been pointed out previously on the Birding Frontiers website, worth a read, and the adult bird has rather pale upperparts more in keeping with albifrons. Not sure where the 2 birds met up, but nice pick by John amongst the Pink-feet,
Regards
Phil

Many thanks Phil,

Given the (very limited) potential viewpoints from the surrounding roads, the flock was always very distant to say the least on the large fields once we eventually found it…

Interesting, but, perhaps not surprising(?) that the two White-fronts we had are (loosely) associating with one-another… No question on the first winter being a Greenland(??), and the adult surely a classic Russian.

Not to say(?), that these are the two birds that have been recorded previously here for certain…

Although we had them well into the “ID danger zone!” (last ½ hour of light!!), we perhaps had better views than had been enjoyed previously, albeit from probably ¾ mile range. No doubt on the ID for us of the birds seen today...

Definitely a great discovery per John!!! And many thanks, a superb bird to observe and a brilliant opportunity to observe the two together, albeit of an adult and a first winter...

Regards,

Ben