Wild goose chase

Today was a notbirding out-of-county trip. Myself and Carl Cornish (minus a certain Mr French who had to bail on us to go up to Scotland for work) headed for Buckenham Marshes in Norfolk. Our quarry was the Lesser White-fronted Goose, which I had dipped just after Christmas (and hadn't bothered to go and see last year). The bird showed upon our arrival, albeit rather distantly, and spent a lot of time either obscured in a ditch, or asleep, when its long wing tips, projecting well beyond the end of the tail, were a particularly useful ID feature.

A particularly bad picture of the Lesser White-fronted Goose at Buckenham Marshes

Buckenham really is a superb site - wouldn't it be great to have some habitat like this in Notts?! As well as the LWFG, there were c.70 Taiga Bean Geese with which it was associating, small numbers of Eurasian White-fronts, Pink-feet and Barnies, at least 2 (and probably 3) Peregrines, 2 Bitterns in flight together, and 2 Short-eared Owls to the south of the Yare. Plus lots of Wigeon, Golden Plover and Lapwing, several Cetti's Warblers, etc.!

Pleased with how the day was panning out, we headed for Titchwell. We had sufficient views of the Coues' Arctic Redpoll with the flock of Lessers and at least one rosy-pink breasted Mealy, although viewing wasn't particularly easy and I couldn't manage a photo. Elsewhere on site, of note were a female Mandarin and a 2nd W Yellow-legged Gull on the freshmarsh and several Spotted Redshank on the brackish marsh.

Spotted Redshank at Titchwell RSPB

There was also a nice selection of stuff on the sea; 5 Long-tailed Ducks, 3 Velvet Scoters, 3 Eider, single Red-necked Grebe and Fulmar, several Razorbills, and a fly-by Goosander. Two Snow Buntings also flew east up the beach, and then back again. A nice end to a good day.