Bean Geese

this field of Bean Geese got little attention as we were searching for Citrine Wagtails but appeared to have mainly Tundra's but a least a few Taigas

Bean Goose debate

this Bean Goose has been around the Read's Island area for a couple of weeks at least associating with about 20 - 30 Pink-footed Geese but occasionally like today the flock joins up with a few Greylags (could these few be wild birds?) -- but the Bean appears to be a mix of Tundra and Taiga from bill pattern, orange subterminal band,  and its usual deep base with obvious lower mandible, grinning patch, small size compared to Pink-feet with shortish? neck that usually looks quite thick but then it often feeds in a horizontal posture that makes it look long in the body and perhaps? exaggerates the length of the neck which can look longer and thinner when alert but still nothing not like the Taigas of the previous week; similarly the bill can look quite long in some postures and the head can look elongated  -- Tundra Bean is rather variable and more likely to raise confusion over ID than Taiga, according to most of the recent literature, but balance of expert opinion seems to suggest it is a Taiga or something in between!! -- obviously some of the shots are not sharp but some illustrate postures that were not captured in other shots

Taiga Bean Goose

this bird is accompanying a large flock of 1100 Pink-footed Geese that have just returned to North Lincs after the snow ;; as usual in an area where they are shot they are even wary of vehicles and I was fortunate to get some distant shots before the farmer saw me watching them and returned with a shot gun to clear them off his field -- stands head and neck above its Pink-footed cousins and has all the features but the legs are a rather dull orange, different tone to the Pinks but nothing like as striking as on the Tundra Beans that we get more frequently with our Pinks