Hiding in plain sight

 It feels like we are waiting for Spring to start. No new birds are dropping in and a lot of old friends are still hanging on. The American robin is carrying on munching its way through the cotoneaster and both the Pacific diver and the white-tailed lapwing are in place. With a day free I decided to head to Norfolk to try and connect with a species I've not seen for a few years now - red-breasted goose. These can be a bit controversial as there are many escapes and introductions around. You have to look at the credentials of those which arrive to see if they're really tickable. This Winter there has been 3 birds around the UK on the East coast. All look pretty wild and with the Norfolk one hanging out with brent geese its credentials look good. 

A very early start got me to Blakeney at just after dawn. The goose has got into a pattern of being in or around the fresh marsh first thing then moving the short distance to Cley to feed up. In a very breezy car park I scanned the freshmarsh and there were lots of brent geese flying in from their roost. 

Quite a few were bathing in the river but lots more were in the grass and out of sight. I couldn't make out the red-breasted goose amongst them so I headed off to Cley. Initially I tried for the Iceland gull which has been feeding on an old seal carcass on the beach. With the wind really strengthening a long walk along the shingle from the beach car park almost to Salthouse got me a nice flock of snow buntings but no white-winged gull!

As I was trudging along through the shingle back to the car the brent geese started flying in. They passed almost over my head

but didn't drop into the scrape or the "eye field" on the beach entrance track. Instead they kept flying towards Salthouses, an area where they had been feeding the previous day. I got back in the car and drove the short distance along the A149. I could see quite a few geese flying around but there was a smallish group in a field right next to a pull-in to a farmers field. I turned the car round and pulled off the road.

You can just about make out the geese in the photo here. They were all feeding vigorously, heads down in the grass. A quick scan through them and it looked like they were just more of the brents I'd seen earlier. I've had experience of red-breasted geese before. Despite looking very gaudy, in a group of brents they can almost disappear. I carried on looking and scanning the birds and after a couple of minutes I picked out a flash of colour amongst the monochrome of the flock.

Hiding in amongst all the brent geese was the one red-breasted goose.

It is a really handsome and striking bird. Their man population breeds in Siberia, where they are listed as vulnerable. In Winter they move to Bulgaria and Romania and this one has presumably got lost and joined up with its close cousins here in Norfolk.

By now I was standing on a small strip of grass on the verge of the A149. The geese flock were totally unconcerned and carried on feeding.

You can see how in morphology and habit they are very similar to the brent geese. As I mentioned before the "carrier" species for these wandering waifs is important in pointing to their origins and so the fact it was with its close cousins is a good thing. 

For those that know the area the A149 is the main coast road and is the one along which you get a lot of birders moving from one reserve to the next. Within only a few minutes three cars pulled up next to me and asked about the goose before pulling off just along the road to get out and admire the bird. 

I'd had a good view of there goose and the flock weren't get ig any closer so I took that as the cue to leave. My next two stops weren't quite as productive. 

At a very windy Holkham I got onto at least one of the overwintering shorelarks but they never settled for a photograph. Titchwell was very quiet as well, apart from the families enjoying half-term! Still, a very good day. The first red-breasted goose for a few years and a good blow along the coast to clear the cobwebs. Still got a few birds to get onto before the before Spring starts but that takes me to 155.