Anser plasticus

Back in November, the BOURC decreed that Ross's Goose was now accepted fully onto the British List. This was on the basis of re-revaluating historical records and concluding that one in Lancs. over three consecutive winters between 1970 and 1974 was coincident with a rapid population expansion for this species in the Nearctic, and that there is clear precedent for Nearctic wildfowl trans-Atlantic vagrancy.

Clearly this generated a lot of excitement in the birding community on Twitter - an armchair tick loomed, and for a good many of those the expectation was that a first-winter bird at Wighton in Norfolk in November 2001 would subsequently make the grade when re-assessed by the BBRC. Here's a screenshot from this webpage on Birdguides (from 2004 as far as I can see) which includes a photo of the said bird:

I saw that bird too, but as with many such sightings of 'untickable' species it isn't in my records. I needed to dig about in the loft, find my old notebooks and check the date. I also don't really remember much from around that time due to life events that happened a couple of months before and a month afterwards: I was working in aerospace engineering when the Twin Towers were destroyed, with an immediate impact on work contracts and exports, and then two days before Christmas my Dad was killed in a car crash. 2001 started so brightly with my eldest son Josh being born and ended up a complete shitstorm (with the Foot and Mouth disaster thrown in).

Anyway, I finally got around to digging out the old notebooks tonight and indeed found the detail I was hoping for.

Around the same time as the Goose turned up, there was an oiled first-winter Snowy Owl dossing about Felixstowe docks. I'd already been over to try and see that on a weekday evening but failed, so on Sat 17/11/2001 I headed back over there with John Hague in tow. We duly saw the bird, which was unmemorable but far from the majestic beast that you regularly see delivering post to Harry Potter on the telly. From there we headed across East Anglia to Wighton and watched the skanky-looking dwarf snow goose feeding with Pink-footed Geese. Then on to Titchwell to round off the day, where amongst a decent list of waders, wildfowl and raptors we also saw a first-winter Gull-billed Tern. Basically it was a day of unsustainable road usage looking at first-winter birds that should be more white than they were, most of which I'd completely forgotten about until reading my barely legible childish scribble.

I saw this bird just over twenty years before the species was added to the British List; I'll hold fire on adding it to mine until the 2001 Norfolk individual has been declared 'good'. In the meantime, I fully expect that the only other Ross's Goose that I've seen will continue to be declared a plastic bag of ....

Clearly sporting a wedding band rather than a Nearctic 'band'

The same bird in March 2012 looking more regal and acceptable due to lack of visibility of its legs ....

Watermead White Stuff

The probably wild but acting captive Whooper Swan is still knocking about at Watermead CP South ...

Meanwhile, this probably captive but acting wild Ross's Goose was entertaining with its little yelping efforts ...

This one doesn't fit the post title. Apart from its bill and shield.

Inland Migratory Tendancies in Ross's Goose [Anser feckingplasticus]

Headed over to Jubilee Pool for a mooch about after dinner this evening - the first time I'd dropped in there since early March I think. Anyway, the pool was all but dried up so not much of interest on there apart from a few Lapwings knocking about the edges and the massed ranks of Canada's which I ignored. I carried on with my route which I'll come back to in a moment, but on the return approach to the pool I could see up ahead Colin Green and Pete Asher watching and photographing something. Unbefeckingleivable - it was the same small white pile-o-shit I'd photographed yesterday (albeit more distant and looking much wilder as a result).

Wild Ross's Goose

Using a combination of Google Maps, weather charts, plastic ruler and finger in air, I have established that this diminutive herbivore has travelled an immense 7miles in a south-westerly migratory route that will have required following the wild River Soar through the concrete jungle of Leicester. However this is pure conjecture, and only ringing recoveries and perhaps satellite tagging will provide the real story of the migratory tendancies of this species.

The great south-westerly migratory route of Ross's Goose

Back to more mundane matters, in between arriving and chatting with Colin and Pete, I walked along the bank of the soar. Nothing of massive avian interest, apart from a few Swallows overhead, a Swift moving ahead of a squall, and best of all a juv Reed Warbler milling about in the reeds. The latter was way to skittish to get anything resembling a photo - I did manage one shot but it is too embarrassing to post even here.

Otherwise, I also found a load of Prickly Lettuce growing long the bank and a quick check on the first clump revealed - yes - more Small Ranunculus larvae. Common as muck round here you know.

Small Ranunculus

I also noted some of this growing in the river:

Amphibious Bistort

And lots of this along the river:

Common Reed

And the skies looked good too.

Ross's

Nipped over to Birstall Meadows and WCPS after work in the vain hope that the deteriorating weather late afternoon would drop in a wader or two. No such luck. Only birds of note at Birstall were 3 Little Egrets milling about in the far corner, and the only waders here (and at WCPS) were Lapwings.

Almost immediately when I pulled up at WCPS it pissed down. I waited in the car for the squall to pass, and emerged to that distinct 'it's just rained heavily on dry tarmac covered in goose shit' smell. Talking of goose shit, almost immediately in front of me was this pile ....

Sporting a plain gold band on right leg, therefore clearly married

Mid November in Norfolk, in a shitty field with Pink-feet, and this is of course an immediately tickable wild Ross's. Probably.

Nothing else of real interest; a few Swallows over the water, a distant Common Tern, and a few gulls. I'm not a Larophile - I'd quite happily lump them into just four species: Small, Medium, Big and Ugly. As a good example, this brute got caught on the sensor - a transitional first-summer into second-winter Great Black-backed? I would not be surprised to find I'm wrong!