The Goose & Swan

The title of this post is nothing to do with a rural drinking hole, but a reference to the birding this morning at Cossington. I was there just after first light, and once again it was bloody cold (-3C). I had a quick look around Cossington Lock for a loitering juv Whooper Swan with no sign, and was then planning on trapsing off towards the sewerage farm to look down onto the Wanlip North lakes when John Hague called to say he'd join me any minute. Andy Cliff also appeared and the three of us hot (actually fecking cold) footed it to look for geese. A good walk and a few minute later and we were scoping through a large sprawling goose flock, mainly Greylags and Canadas but a few White-fronted Geese were also quickly spotted. Before long the hoped-for juvenile Brent Goose gave itself up, quickly followed by a solitary Pink-footed Goose. Excellent - two county ticks for me. The White-front counting was nigh on impossible, but we made a minimum of 9 including a juvenile. A couple of Egyptian Geese also showed themselves - probably the biggest rarities in terms of Leicestershire (as opposed to Rutland where they are resident). A soaring Buzzard, loads of lapwings and assorted ducks were also noted before we headed back to the lock. This time the Whooper Swan was easily located milling about with a handful of adult Mute Swans. This bird is the epitome of the ugly duckling. Damned ugly. It was very animated though, constanly nodding its head and making noises. I grabbed a bit of crappy video in poor light - it actually looks pretty good on the PC but seems to get knackered through compression of some sort when uploaded. Anyway, you get the gist. A quick stomp around Rectory Marsh at Cossington Meadows put up four Snipe, but no Jacks. A pair of Stonechats were knocking about - always great to see. I then had a look around Chapel Lane off of Welford Road for a small group of Waxwings that were about yesterday - no joy. Maybe the big flock picked up at Loughborough this afternoon will still be knocking about tomorrow.