Pink-Footed Geese

A few enjoyable hours today at Marshside and my current favourite birding location, Hesketh Out Marsh produced the following highglights.

Hesketh Out Marsh. 250+ Golden Plover in the fields with similar numbers of Lapwing, 2+ Brambling in the hedgerow by the car park, 12 Tree Sparrow in with a mixed flock of finches, several hundred Skylark over the Marsh, 1 Green Sandpiper, 3 Snipe, 1 female Marsh Harrier and one skein of Pink feet over. Wildfowl and waders were visible in far distance but the marsh was frozen solid and most of the birds had moved off to the mud or fields.

Same picture at Marshside with most of the freshwater pools frozen solid save for a few isolated unfrozen sections. Wader numbers much reduced on my last visit but plenty of wildfowl with good numbers of widgeon and Pink-footed geese on the ground.

As high tide and dusk approached I stood on the salt-marsh and marvelled as skein after skein of Pink feets flew low overhead from the estuary to their roosting areas.

Pink-footed geese flying in to roost over the saltmarsh, Marshide