Oxon Goose Fest Continues

There seems to be no end to the current county goose fest. The seven tundra bean geese were still present at Aston this morning but in addition Peter Barker re-located 40+ white-fronted geese on the Flood Field at Otmoor. These birds had been seen to land somewhere on Otmoor a day or two ago but had not been re-found (or probably looked for) since. I was tied up with my weekly shopping duties in the morning and was therefore rather disappointed to hear that the birds had flown off late morning. Fortunately however, a while later they were reported back at Otmoor on Ashgrave field. After a quick lunch I took L out with me and we headed down to Otmoor. We'd just left the RSPB car park and were walking towards the bridle path when I thought to call to check on their location. It was a good thing that I did as it turned out they were right at the west end of Ashgrave near Lower Farm and it was by far easiest to view them from the Noke end. We quickly turned around and I bundled L back into the car and we nipped round to Noke where I soon managed to find them. L happily munched on some snacks whilst I scoped and photographed these handsome and suitably wary birds. There seemed to be at least 47 of them and the top count that I'd heard of was an impressive 49. They seemed reasonably content down at the Noke end and perhaps might stay a little while

A distant shot of part of the flock





Some close up shots. At the distance they were and in the gloomy light once again they are all of merely record shot quality

Another tick for the lists. In addition there were three little egrets also on Ashgrave which were county year list ticks.

National Year List 2010
090 white-fronted goose 23/01/2010 Otmoor

Oxon Year List 2010
081 white-fronted goose 23/01/2010 Otmoor
082 little egret 23/01/2010 Otmoor