Saturday, January 01, 2011
First day of the year
It was cloudy and glum around nine o'clock this morning, but the river was busy. Two female goldeneye were diving, and a single golden plover was with lapwings. Several redhead smew were buzzing up and down and this one landed nearby.
A string of fifteen geese flying away west seemed worth snapping; but it wasn't until I uploaded the photo and saw those lovely white faces that I realised they were barnacles! There have been recent reports of sixteen barnacles locally so this was probably them, minus one.
They haven't all been shot yet.....
I called into Marsh Lane to see the white-fronted geese reported on the Bucks website; four are seen on the water here among the larger greylags.
After a while they flew over the path into the field, landing to graze considerably closer than they were yesterday.
A good morning's birding.
// posted by Christine @ 8:09 AM 
