Taiga Bean Geese

a tricky call?  saw these 8 Beans last Sunday at a distance and as they flew off then landed out of sight I got distracted by the vole eating owl and failed to follow them up -- today they were flushed by a tractor and gave an opportunity to learn some basic ID features in flight mode -- we see a lot of Pink-feet here but very few other grey geese so that's my excuse for not learning more about flight ID of grey geese --
a day when you learn something about bird ID is a good day -- without checking I think this is probably the largest flock of Taiga Bean Geese ever recorded in Lincolnshire

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