Tuesday 11 January 2011

Wild goose chase

At the weekend I spent an extremely enjoyable day with my parents and my better half, Lisa at Holkham NNR in North Norfolk. We went to see the spectacle that is thousands of Pink-footed Geese feeding on the saltmarsh and surrounding fields.

This goose comes to Britain in the winter to escape the cold of Iceland and Greenland. There are over 240,000 birds that make this trip each year and numbers are on the increase thanks to a number of factors, including larger fields which makes finding food easier and better protection given at the winter roosts. They feed on vegetable matter including grain, winter cereals, potatoes and grass and although they do graze farmland they seldom do any economic damage.

A truly magical spectacle, especially when thousands of these geese fly directly overhead, with the noise being quite unbelievable!






All digiscoped using Lumix FS15 and Kowa TSN-883 x30

8 comments:

  1. Magnificent! I've only been to Norfolk once, but hope to go back. Certainly a birds' and birdwatchers' paradise.

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  2. Fabulous! I love seeing masses of geese and ducks. Canada geese seem to make a nuisance of themselves and my cousin in Vancouver said one province spent thousands of dollars shipping them off to some distant point but they came straight back like homing pigeons!
    Bazza’s Blog ‘To Discover Ice’

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  3. And you have captured those magical moments beautifully, John!

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  4. It certainly is Raining Acorns! It is a lovely place and not very far away from me, only about 60 miles, which makes it ideal for a day trip!
    J

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  5. Hi bazza, geese do keep coming back to the same place year after year, so they must have some homing device!
    J

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  6. Thanks for those kind words Grandpa!
    J

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  7. Love that first shot John...you really sense the vastness of the country. What a nice day trip!

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  8. Thanks Cat. Yes, Norfolk can be a bit like that, it is very flat and the land goes on for ever!
    J

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