Geese Galore and 230 for the year!

On Tuesday 23rd December, Dad and I visited North Warren first to see the range of geese that had been seen there. There had been 7 species in recent days, so we thought we'd go and check it out...

This was only the second time I had visited North Warren RSPB, so I only really knew the path leading through North and South Marsh. However, on this occasion, a good friend of ours told us to walk the "full Monty" and keep going, through the woods towards Thorpeness Sewage Works!

There was a couple of other birders up there, and we scanned the geese. The obvious goose specie was hundreds of Barnacle Geese, which stretched most of the way across the Northern part of North Marsh. I scanned through them, and picked up the 2 Red-breasted Geese, presumably escape birds, and about 40 ish White-fronted Geese.

 The Red-breasted Geese are in their somewhere!

Close up

I then picked up the flock of 15 Tundra Bean Geese on the right hand side of the flock, but like all of the geese present, they were a bit distant...

very hazy too

We did also see a very late Whimbrel, so don't know where he came from? Also present were some very nice Black-tailed Godwit and a pair of Stonechat.

We then headed to Covehithe Broad to look for the Shorelarks and Snow Buntings. On the approach road from Wrentham to Covehithe Church however, I glanced into the pig field on the left, and right by the road I thought I saw a Hooded Crow. I have had a lot of experience with these birds, so I was quite certain that was what it was, but as I was in a moving vehicle, I couldn't be 100% sure. 

The light was brilliant, but the wind was a killer, so photography was difficult. Managed to get some OK shots of the Shorelarks though on the east side of the broad.

We then went to look for the Snow Buntings, but everyone we passed said they hadn't seen them, so we wasn't expecting any. However, we walked in front of the cliffs, and within minutes the flock flew over the sea and over our heads, but unfortunately landed in the private cliff-top field, so no pictures were obtained. A great days birding though! No time to go to Dunwich, and there was no sign of my possible Hooded Crow on the way back either.

Happy Birding!