Sunday 21 October 2012

Red Breasted Goose at South Swale

Red Breasted Goose with Brent Geese.

With news of an adult Red Breasted Goose showing well with Dark Bellied Brent Geese at South Swale all week i thought i would have a look on Saturday 20th , this being my first chance as being busy at work all week ,  i parked up near the Sportsman pub at Seasalter and made the long walk along the sea wall towards South Swale , there were plenty of Bearded Tits in the adjacent reed bed plus 2 or 3 Cettis Warblers were quite vocal but as ever not seen .

Head on view.

I reached the area the Red Breasted Goose had been favouring and i soon picked it out amongst the Brents , this is an adult bird and did show well most of the time i was there , i think this has a great chance of being accepted a s genuine wild bird , it arrived with over 2000 Dark Bellied Brent Geese and is  unringed , this is  a welcome year tick for me.



Red Breasted Goose

There were plenty of Wigeon and Shelduck on the Swale , plus a distant Marsh Harrier , after about half an hour all the Geese took to the air and had a fly around obviously spooked by something , i wasn't watching the Red Breasted Goose at the time and i could not pick it out in flight , however they all eventually settled down again further down the Swale  where i managed to see it again and put two newly arrived birders onto it , on my way back i had some great views of the Bearded Tits plus a pair of Stonechats showed well at times.