Bit of Ribble birding.

Tundra Bean Goose (centre) near Martin Mere, 11 March 2012.

 More dodgy grey goose photos I'm afraid. Didn't have enough time to get to the estuary today so when Graham Clarkson found a Tundra Bean Goose with Pinks near Martin Mere this morning I thought I'd have a look.
It took a full hour of scanning through the 820 Pink-feet to find it. I wasn't too ashamed as it was sitting right at the back of the field, so no orange legs on show.

 It did get up to feed eventually, preening and shaking those big orange plates. You can just about see its orange legs in this shot. Great birds, I'll always go to look at Beans. Single Greylag Goose and a neck-collared Pink-foot seen, Little Owl heard and flocks of Fieldfares in the trees bordering a ditch where a Stoat carried off what looked like a Water Vole all seen.

Neck-collared Pink-footed Goose TJS was amongst the 820 near Martin Mere today.

Big tides on the Ribble this weekend but my visit to Hesketh Out Marsh yesterday was a little disappointing with these 3 Eiders being the highlight. The blustery conditions made birding a bit tricky but we did manage 2 Corn Buntings and there are still plenty of geese on the estuary (something to do next weekend hopefully).
An evening stroll on Longton Marsh doing a Brown Hare survey yielded Corn Bunting and 23 Whooper Swans yesterday.