Today I was down in the Essex area for work with Heather and we swung by Shrewsbury to see what all the fuss was about with the rare geese being seen. We showed up and got the spotting scope out since a mass of geese and swans was huddled around a small patch of open water quite far out on the ice. Unfortunately after watching them for only a few minutes the whole flock of Snow Geese took off and flew off several kilometres to the east along the shoreline. We decided to see if we could track them down and after a few attempts of going down some dead end roads we found a way to get close to the water. This was the scene we were greeted with:
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| All those white and brown specks are geese, swans and ducks! |
We dared not go any closer for fear of flushing the birds, so we sat on the edge of this berm and got some good looks through the scope. Shortly after scanning the flock we spotted a few Ross's Geese, numerous Greater White-fronted Geese and gobs of Snow Geese! Unfortunately the photos are not great due to the distance and because I was basically shooting at random to try and get some shots of the rare birds. We had pure Ross's Geese with the very stubby bills and smaller size, several birds which could have been hybrids and true Snow Geese as well.
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| Ross's Geese dead centre, Snow Geese to the right, Greater White-fronted Geese in bottom left |
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