The wader passage is stepping up a gear now: today we had 4 RINGED PLOVER, 2 LITTLE RINGED PLOVER (remarkably our first of the year), 3 DUNLIN, 2 COMMON SANDPIPERS (again our first of the year) and a couple of OYSTERCATCHERS. Whilst looking at the waders this morning I heard the distinctive call of our first YELLOW WAGTAIL of the year though it didn't linger at all. In addition on the floods were the usual SHELDUCK, a handful of GADWALL and a couple of COMMON TERNS.
The highlight of the weekend though was found by Martin Gebauer in the evening when he spotted a PINK-FOOTED GOOSE in amongst the Greylags and Canada Geese a fair distance to the north of the floods. Whilst being a very common winter visitor to the east coast of this country, this species is pretty rare in the county. Now it's always hard to tell the provenance of a single water fowl and had it been a flock of a dozen or more then there would be no doubt about it. As it is, it's open to debate though the bird was unringed which is in its favour. I think that in this instance the best policy might be to turn a blind eye and quietly to tick it.
The Pink-footed Goose
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