recent birds at Alkborough

Three White-fronts and a Great White Egret present this week followed the earliest ever Spoonbill in late February at Alkborough; lots of wildfowl including up to 33 Pintail and a Red Kite passed through on the 4th. 

Does this Jackdaw have enough of a collar to suggest it may not be a local bird? 

 

winter geese

its been good locally for Tundra Beans and White-fronts this winter with a peak of 107 White-fronts in one flock and flocks of 10, 7, 8 Tundra Beans maybe with some overlap -- photography has never been easy so a few records here

 above the 8 Tundra Beans at Alkborough on Sunday

 White-fronts and a lone Greylag part of the flock of 107 that are mixed in with 2500 - 4000 Pinks at Goxhill --the lone Greylag could presumably be a real wild bird

 Mass of Pinks

 above 2 part of the flock of 10 Tundra Beans above Barton in late December; stained with a coating of Humber mud the legs can look less than strikingly orange

 Pink-feet coming onto sugar beet

 a lone Tundra bean in the usual appalling light

 4 Pink-feet

 above 2 shots two Tundra Beans left with two Pink-feet

 White-fronts and Pinks

 Tundra Beans and Pinks

 the 8 Tundra beans against the light

 White-fronts and the lone Greylag

6 of the 7 White-fronts at Alkborough at the weekend

European White-fronted Goose arrival

after being informed of two flocks of 22 and 10 White-fronts at the head of the Humber and having seen a flock of grey geese flying west while in Tesco's car park headed down Far Ings road and in the first grass field bingo with the local Greylags were 10 adult European White-fronts grazing calmly; after watching them for a couple of hours I was just about to pack up when a flock of 33 grey geese flew west behind me; views were of the birds going away but the tail and wing pattern looked spot on for White-fronts then news arrived of a flock of 33 further down the Humber at Sunk Island --

White-fronted Geese

we estimated about 30,000 White-fronted Geese at various spots around the country -- presumably late departing due tot he cold weather -- interesting to see hundreds of geese feeding within 100m of people working in their back gardens -- clearly no real persecution