The Lincolnshire Bird Club

Very quiet initially but after an hour or so everything got going:

Greylag c250 plus one lone brent flying with them!
Teal 72
Mallard 7
Snipe 5
Lapwing 64
Curlew 28
Kestrel 1
Sparrowhawk 1m,1f harrassing everything.
Stock dove 2
Pied wagtail 6
Fieldfare 4 large flocks of 200-300 S
Jackdaw large flock 150+ S
Several small flocks starling each 100-150 flying into roost in reedbed

David

David,

Sorry to question the Brent Goose, but I think that Brent Goose is very unlikely at Marston? Did you get a good view of this bird, it is more likely to be an escape spp? A brent goose at Marston would be a remarkable record? Any photos?

Andrew

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Andrew Chick
Website: http://www.forktail.co.uk/

Andrew

Sorry no photos. It was flying over with a large flock of greylags and was very noticeable by it's smaller size, very dark head neck and breast and a very pale (although not particlarly white) rump. It was over the northern scrape so a fair distance away and I couldn't discern any white neck markings and dusk was approaching. The flock circled around for about a minute before landing in a field some distance away. It may well have been an escape but it didn't resemble any other ornamental species I know of, but I'm not an expert.

David

Hi David

I called into Marston today to have a look for your goose, but the best I could do (with the caveat that viewing from Mill Lane is difficult and another bird could have gone unseen) was a Pink-footed Goose. This is concievably the same Pink that has been travelling around the Marston/Ancaster area with Greylags since at least October 1994.

Given your poor views, could this be your bird? There is nothing in your description that would rule out Pink-foot, and Brent would be an exceptional vagrant!

cheers

Alex

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Dr Alexander C. Lees
Lecturer in tropical ecology
Manchester Metropolitan University

Lab Associate
Cornell Lab of Ornithology,
Cornell University

http://www.freewebs.com/alexlees/index.htm
@Alexander_Lees

Hi Alex,

Thanks for your comments. I cannot rule out a pink foot, bearing in mind the distance and lateness of the hour. I have very little experience of viewing pink foots flying at low height but owing to the usual close proximity of many brents that I have seen I have more experience of them. The head, neck and breast of this bird appeared darker than a pink foot and one noticeable feature was the fairly sharp delineation between breast and belly. Wings did not show the pale grey normally obvious in a pink foot. I did not know about the "resident" pink foot, only been watching in the Marston area since the beginning of this year, so I suppose that bearing in mind that "common things happen commonly" we might assume it was this bird. Not very scientific I know but I'll keep an eye out for the pink foot and see if a similarity is there, I'll let you know. In the mean time I guess that the observation must be ruled out as unconfirmed.

Regards

David