Natural Selection

I’ve looked at a lot of Pink-footed Geese today. First up was a flock of around 600 birds by the main road at Hamilton. These were fairly close and settled as the picture below hopefully conveys.

Then via Pilling and Conder Green onwards to the Goose Watch at Aldcliffe. There were decent flocks both on the marsh and in the fields behind the cycle path. Unfortunately there was no sign of yesterday’s Bean Goose in any of the birds close enough to scrutinise well. There were a few Canada Geese dotted about that all liked like yesterday’s putative Todd’s, so I’m not hugely convinced by that.

Whilst Jane was at the gym I had a final throw of the dice in the remaining light at Little Singleton. There was a decent flock of Pinkies and the two Barnacle Gees that have been with them were still present and correct, bonny birds.

The light was beginning to inch towards the beautiful sunset above when I picked up an oddball Pinkfoot in the group. Beast may be a bit unkind, but it’s certainly a weird looking thing. Apologies for the picture quality of a distant bird in the gloom, but you get the idea.

The kind of thing you might see in a Greylag flock, but I’ve never seen anything quite like it before in a group of Pinkfeet. Every day is a school day.