Geese at Gilsland, just outside North Berwick, included a few worth examining; 2 Barnacles visible on Saturday late afternoon, though Mark saw 4, plus a head seen of a bird with a solid white blaze round the beak; back on Sunday in better light, still 3 Barnacles in 1390 Pinks, the white blaze bird was a Pinkfoot on all other features, though pretty deceptive in front view:
Glad I had gone back though as there was also a grey collar, TKR. Finally amongst the other variety of plumages shown by the Pinkfeet was one bird with a white band across breast, also a bit of white round the bill:
Proceeded to Drem area, where a minimum of 1800 Pinks were on grass at Muirton in a very inaccessible location, thus hard to scan. Amongst and adjacent to them were 39 Curlews and c. 137 Whoopers; another 40+ Whoopers were on the ex-landfill, now a quagmire inhabited by black-billed swans (below), but 11 others had ventured west and were grazing in cereal south of Drem pools, apparently an atlas tick for NT57E. The drake Scaup remained on East Fenton.
I've never seen a Pinkie like the band-breasted one and I would have been getting excited about the one with the extensive white forehead.
ReplyDeleteNot been a vintage goose winter - I suppose we were spoiled last winter.
BTW where are the Meds? Seems quiet or are they too common to report now?
Indeed, poor for geese this year, only c. 10 Euro Whitefronts reported in the whole of Scotland apparently; despite being flooded last year it is all relative and would have been a nice one to find - that's two false alarms for me recently :(
ReplyDeleteAt Seton 10 days back there was a very poor gull roost, though Kris had seen a Med Gull there earlier - so it may be that small gull numbers are depressed in general. After finding BirdGuides would not publish reports after several attempts I gave up sending there (though they did list the above record, seemingly inconsistent, perhaps different operator?) - thereby we lose a useful archive of records which I had hitherto tried to ensure was complete, at least with my sightings. Back to DIY systems!