Today, I received a call off TS (owner & proprietor of Tony's Cafe & Cabs) informing me that there was a Barnacle Goose on Captains Pool. This is a patch first for me so I headed there as soon as I was able to. This is the third record for the patch with the previous sightings being on 25th May 2009 and in Spring 1996.
Migrant Barnacle Geese come from Svalbard in the Arctic and winter on the England/Scotland border on the Solway Firth. The Population from Greenland winters in the Hebrides and western Ireland. The birds that we tend to get in the Midlands are most likely part of the c.1,000 feral breeding population...around 150 are at Slimbridge in Gloucestershire. Still, they are smart looking birds all the same. This individual was un-ringed.
Also of note on Captains pool were 1 Lesser Black-backed Gull, 51 Black-headed Gulls, 2 Great Crested Grebes, 4 Coot, 1 Mute swan and 12 Canada Geese.
Feral or not, tick it Jase :-) I have !!!
ReplyDeleteDont worry Warren its now on my patch life list...taking me up to 103 species.
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