Goose round up

I joined the IRG at Roxton to help in the ringing of the Barnacle Goose flock there. At this time of year the Barnies are going through the moult and are unable to fly well if at all. With the help of some local canoeists all the geese were rounded up into a pen on the shore. Then it was down to the ringing with a large number receiving a white on red darvic colour ring along with the traditional metal ring.

There were 139 retraps and about 150 new birds plus 3 Greylags and 7 Canadas (numbers courtesy of EN). 26 Barnies flew to evade capture.

We also had 10 Crosbills over north and a fine pale Common Buzzard drifted over East. On site a minimum of 4 Lapwings and 3 Oystercatchers were also present along with good numbers of Coot and a handful of Mute Swans. On the other lake there were a couple of well grown juvenile Great Crested Grebes, more Coot and about 15 more Greylag Geese.