Goose Watch

Just seen an amazing sight this morning . We live about 3 miles from the bird sanctuary at Martin Mere. Quite often we have a flight off geese passing over in a vee high up. This morning a hug number off vees flew over ( more than google photo below ), must have been over 1000 geese in 20 vees !
Now I know sod all about geese , on the news last week it said a record number off Pink Footed Geese had arrived from Greenland . So presuming the are Pinkies , and they are flying due East from Martin Mere (Ormskirk) towards Wigan at 08:00 in the morning. Are they going to feed/graze ? There is a huge area off lakes and ponds east off Wigan called flashes - they may go there ?

 

They could be on there way to Norfolk thats were a lot over winter feeding on the sugar beet.
They could be heading to the flashes

 

Must have been an amazing sight, we get some fly over here in the winter but only about a dozen at a time, think they move from pool to pool for feeding.

 

Hi @HarryS we are blessed with lots of flocks of geese at the moment too, ours seem to be in flocks of up to twenty, they fly over in the morning & fly back over at night in the dark? We know it's the geese flying back because of the wonderful noise they make. I had a small flock fly over me last week, they were so low I could hear the wind in their feathers, it literally gave me goosebumps.

 

It was a similar thing here. Literally thousands of geese flying westwards, a sure sign of bad weather to come in this area. Haven't a clue what kind they were though.

 

Had a word with a few people , but generally our knowledge of geese migration is appalling ! I would guess they were at cruising altitude , possibly 3000 feet (?) Unlikely to get so high taking of from Martin Mere... 3 miles away . So possibly they were flocks coming in from Greenland and heading to the Norfolk/Suffolk wetlands ? Bird migration is an amazing thing , it raises so many why and how questions .

 

Here at Loch Leven, we have eight thousand roost over-night, and take off for feeding around 07:00, total visits through a week they put at twentytwo thousand, flying down from Iceland

Again they are early this year speculating a hard winter

Jack McH

 

@Jack McHammocklashing , so that's how the Daily Express predict their winter weather forecast

 

They were flying West.

 

The flock of geese which flew over this morning was definately the largest flock so far, the noise was incredible, it was such a wonderful sight.
I'm fairly sure that they are spending their nights at a farm in Rede here in Suffolk, there's a pond & a meadow on the farm, I can see the geese from the road, I so want to drive down & have a look but I don't know the farmers! Anyway there seems to be a regular flight pattern, first we have a few small flocks of geese fly over before it gets light, then there's a large flock followed by a couple of smaller flocks, they fly in the direction of Wickhambrook/Lidgate, then come the evening a few small flocks fly back followed by the larger flock, amazingly the larger flock fly back in the dark!
I'd love to know where they go for the day! I've been asking around, surprisingly some people haven't even seen or heard them

 

The main Geese wintering down here are Brents which are often seen on the sea and resident Canadas. Geese are the one of the highest flying birds and some have been recorded at over 28,000ft.

 

Must be nearly Autumnwatch time, they cover the geese a lot, ask the question @Beckie76 , we will be thrilled to know it was you.
Although I did think they spent their days in the harvested stubble fields, eating dropped grain.

 

This mornings 'fly past! was super , there's more everyday

Good idea @pamsdish .
I'd love to know where they fly to everyday, it can't be far from here & I'd love to go & see them & perhaps take them some food!

 

Wow! I wasn't expecting to see any here in great numbers, but I was away from home at dusk this evening and I could here them, so I stood and waited......about 150 flew over, the hooting was amazing, and what a sight! I think they were probably heading to Scotland which is about 23 miles north of the island.