A Siberian visitor to Norfolk

   

 

There are currently three vagrant Red-breasted Geese in the country. With a lull in the strong winds which have been battering the east coast forecast for Wednesday, I decided to make a visit to Cley in Norfolk to see what was reported as a very showy bird. 

 

The Red-breasted Goose breeds mainly in Artic Siberia and winters on the shores of the Black Sea. It is a rare vagrant to the British Isles where it is sometimes found with flocks of Brent or Barnacle Geese.  It is classified as vulnerable meaning that it is threatened with extinction unless the circumstances that are threating its survival and reproduction improve. It is a very attractive small stocky goose with a small bill. It has a rich rusty breast and striking rusty and black-and-white head pattern. The mantle is dark and finely barred and it has a noticeable white flank stripe.

 

Identification of truly wild vagrants in the UK suffers the same escapee problems of all attractive wildfowl kept in collections but association with a known carrier species, such as the Brent Goose, is often taking as a good indication of a wild bird. The BOU have 90 accepted occurrences of wild birds in the British Isles and the fact that there are currently three in the UK indicates, to me at least, that these birds are likely to be accepted as wild.

 

The Norfolk coast is a three and a half hour drive from home on a good day and my departure time was determined by overnight closures of the M5 lasting until 06:00. The sat nav map in my car is well out of date but I really object to paying £150 for a new DVD. My experience on Wednesday morning, however, has forced me to review this! I was on the new A14 dual carriageway south of Huntingdon, which is not on my sat nav, and sailing along when I missed my turning and immediately drove into a one hour delay due to an accident. Yep, time to bite the bullet and cough up the £150 I think!

 

When I arrived at Cley I found the main high street  shut which blocked my way to  Beach Road. With no diversion signed, I followed the other, hopefully local, drivers down a few back roads and fortunately came out on the other side to Cley next to Beach Road. It was immediately obvious where the goose was as a group of birders and photographers were staring intently at a flock of feeding Brent Geese in a field next to the road. 

 

The Red-breasted Goose was at the back of the flock and much harder to spot than you might imagine, being smaller than the Brents and often disappearing behind grass tussocks. I watched it for a while through my scope and took a few rather distant record shots. This really was a stunningly attractive bird with a very noticeable and somewhat odd looking punk shaped head. It seemed to be very much holding its own with the Brents and was  regularly calling and displaying to its larger cousins.

 

After maybe 15 minutes a Marsh Harrier flew overhead and the whole flock took to the air in a noisy crescendo of alarm calls. I held my breath hoping that they would not fly off but after a couple of circles they landed in the same field but a little further back. Two Spoonbills also flew overhead providing a momentary distraction for the goose admirers.

 

The flock again took to the air for no apparent reason but, thankful, they landed much closer to us right next to the road. I spent the next couple of hours photographing our exotic Siberian visitor. Getting a clear shot was much harder than it might sound as it moved in and out of the Brents but with patience it eventually made its way to the front of the flock and more out into the open.

 

Very satisfied with my mornings work, I decided to head to the nearby Arnold’s Marsh for another look at the over wintering Snow Bunting flock which had reportedly increased in number since my last visit, see here. The juvenile Iceland Gull was also reported as being on the beach. After my last visit I had sussed out it was much easier to get to Arnold’s Marsh by parking at the small car park opposite Snipe’s Marsh and then walking along the east bank as opposed to the shingle slog from Cley beach. The gusty wind had increased noticeably since the morning and the Snow Buntings were very unsettled. Often taking to the wing and calling. I did get one particularly nice flight view as they flew overhead but no decent photos on this occasion. A fellow birder told me that the Iceland Gull was on one of the marsh scrapes and I had good scope views of it while sheltering from the wind behind the east bank hide. A nice way to end a very pleasant days east coast birding.

Snow Bunting Arnold's Marsh December 2021

Footnote – my blogs are posted with sometimes rather imaginative spelling and grammar due to my extreme dyslexia!