If you read Friday's post about the dropped ball, it was probably obvious I was a bit miffed. Pink-footed Goose is rare in Dorset. How rare? West Bexington & Cogden boasts a list of some 273 species, and has been worked for decades. When Alan Barrett let me know that Pink-footed Goose would have been a new bird for that patch, it put things in perspective. So. Since Friday I have been hard at work trying to put together a rescue package...
Size and plumage-wise, PFG is unique among the grey geese. So despite their low quality, my side-by-side photos with Canada Geese are actually very useful. I'm not going to post them all again, but here is a standard NQS annotated collage with some pertinent features highlighted...
In one of the notes I mention the Seaton Pink-foot. Phil Abbott kindly sent me a couple of flight shots so that I could confirm one or two things...
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| The Seaton Pink-footed Goose © Phil Abbott |
In a nutshell, the only species which fits the photos is Pink-footed Goose. All the others would in some way be found wanting. So I'm having it. It flew over the coastguard cottages into West Bex airspace, so if it passes muster with the Dorset Records Committee I hope the West Bexington & Cogden patch list can have it too.
Not the ideal way to identify a bird, but I do quite enjoy this kind of photographic analysis, so am delighted that it has paid off. Also, once again I am reminded why a camera has become a vital part of my birding kit.
Incidentally, talking of photo-analysis, today I discovered that the lovely 3rd-winter Yellow-legged Gull I saw on Saturday afternoon (previous post) was also seen on October 1st. There are photos on Twitter, and a quick bit of sleuthing proved it to be the same bird. I shan't publish them on here (they're not mine, and I don't have permission) but it is interesting to see how much the outermost primary (p10) has grown in nine days.
No. Really, it is...
Identifying birds is always a process of elimination, even common birds are processed by our brains albeit in a micro second. You have taken a tad longer but got a result. Congratulations on a new addition to the list.
ReplyDeleteThank goodness for cameras, in the bad old days you'd have had to shoot it to id it. Some of those distant sea sightings would test your spaniel that's for sure.
Ha ha! Thanks Dave. 😊 It's not the first time I've confirmed an ID with the camera, but possibly the most significant so far.
DeleteWell done Gav, accepted!
ReplyDeleteYours was one of the comments which encouraged me to get my finger out and sort it. Realised it must be doable somehow. Cheers! 👍
DeleteEnjoying your blog Gav, I was trawling through the archives & came across the "Scilly log, October 2019) One I recall was about a famous birder and a Vauxhall Cavalier SRI which raised more than a smile, Do you still have it? if so at the risk of becoming a radio request show could you "play it again"for all my friends & everybody who knows me?
ReplyDeleteHi Derek, I will trawl through the back catalogue and have a look. But it might have been turfed out with NQS Mk2. Can't recall how far back that one goes...
DeleteOf course the question now is what the origins of the pink-footed goose are, but maybe that's for another day!
ReplyDeleteCheers
Col
Assuming it is the Seaton bird, it's timing is fine and it arrived alone. With no Pinky mates about it sadly chose to lower itself into dark depths in order to seek company. It isn't the first wild goose to do so. But its children will be ashamed.
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