Today I literally went on a wild goose chase. I’d been told that a type of goose called a “Richardson’s Cackling Goose” had been spotted in amongst a flock of larger Canada Geese at a spot near a local river. I did not see any Canada Geese but saw skeins of Pink Footed Geese flying over to feed in the fields.
However, the joy of going out looking for things is that you see other interesting sights. You just never know what you’re going to see in advance. Instead of geese I saw a large flock of lapwings. First they were sitting congregated in a muddy field, then they took to the air to stretch their wings for a bit before settling down on the ground again. Lapwings are also known as “peewits” as this is the sound they make when they call.
Lapwings are striking birds. They have lovely silky green and pinky brown tones on their wings and a tuft on their heads.
Another treat was seeing four large whooper swans, they migrate here from Iceland for the winter. I managed to get this shot of one flying. Unlike our mute swans they have triangular yellow beaks with black tips.
I finished off my walk looking for kingfishers but have not seen any in a long time. They seemed to have disappeared from their usual hunting ground. But I was standing chatting to some other nature watchers when a fairly large bird suddenly dived down into a leafy ditch next to us. We wondered if it was a sparrowhawk landing with its catch and I pointed the camera down to quickly snap it. However it turned out to be a woodcock. I had to look this one up in my bird guide to identify it.
So no rare geese today, but I was glad to be out and about wandering with my camera again and decided it would be good to start blogging again.
Sarah's Wildlife Watch 