Thursday, October 07, 2010

Pink-feet & Canada Goose sp at Scammonden 07/10/10

I originally thought that 68 Pink-feet flew NE over Scammonden at 09:15hrs this morning but when I looked more closely at a number of photos that I took, I noticed that one of the 68 isn't a Pink-footed Goose, but instead appears to be some species of Canada Goose with obvious white chinstrap, shortish neck similar in length to Pink-feet, brown/white breast and no noticeable difference in overall size to the Pink-feet.

Bearing in mind that this particular individual is migrating with 'wild' geese, does anyone have any thoughts on the id of it?

In addition 23 Lapwing S, 40 Golden Plover SW, 10 Coal Tit on the move again S & 2 Twite S.

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2 comments:

Ian Scott said...

Everything else about it (size, shape, pink feet, feathering on the wing) looks pretty much identical to the others in the photo so I'd say its a pink foot too.

The white chin may just be the way the light has caught it (unless you have other photos from a different angle). The one to the left of it is showing a brighter patch on the chin to a lesser extent.

11:05 pm
David Tattersley said...

Hi Ian

You may well be correct about the light, I really don't know as the sun was more or less directly behind me at the time. I have 8 photos of this bird in the frame and all of them. taken with the skein approaching from the south-west clearly show a white chinstrap.

I agree the one to the left also shows a brighter patch and this is also visible to a much lesser degree on some of the other photos.

I'm sure though this bird must have some plumage abnormality from the norm, it also looks to have a small black bill this could be the light again playing tricks contrasting with the white chinstrap, however legs look pinkish as you say.

I think I will record 67 and a half Pink-footed Goose NE over Scammonden at 09:15hrs on 7/10

9:29 am

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