Geese departing from Snettisham, Wash-wards, at dusk. Pink-footed?

[Deb London]

I added a comment to BOTD yesterday which raised a question in my mind. I can't find the answer using Google, and a separate thread may help others.

At dusk, hundreds, if not thousands, of geese flew over a beach near Snettisham, Norfolk, heading towards the sea, in a direction that might have meant they were intending to cross The Wash.

I can't find out why they were undoubtedly Pink-footed Geese. For example, why not Brent?

Is this a common (albeit fairly spectacular) event? I've never seen the likes before.

Would they have flown all night? Or landed when they reached the other side? How can they see where they are landing if this is the case?

Thanks.

[Deb London]

http://www.wildaboutbritain.co.uk/fo...-post7685.html

Thank you Roy. Didn't mean to start a debate.

I know that they weren't Brent Geese from the sound (I didn't add that to the OP as I wanted to make the thread more general), and there were a hell of a lot of them. I xeno-canto'ed the noise, and it's probably them, but the recordings aren't great.

[RoyW]

Coincidentely, I've just posted a comment about this on the BOD thread (posted two minutes after your post here, but the 'multi quoting' took me longer than two minutes!). (edit: which you've obviously already seen - must type quicker!)

You may well have seen both Pink-feet and Brent - and perhaps also some White-fronts. The likelihood is that whatever they were they were heading to roost on the Wash.
It's an event that can be witnessed every dusk during the winter, and again at dawn as they depart for feeding grounds in fields along the coast.

[Deb London]

Originally Posted by RoyW

Coincidentely, I've just posted a comment about this on the BOD thread (posted two minutes after your post here, but the 'multi quoting' took me longer than two minutes!).

You may well have seen both Pink-feet and Brent - and perhaps also some White-fronts. The likelihood is that whatever they were they were heading to roost on the Wash.

Thanks Roy.

Do you mean that they might have been going to roost on the water? I realise no one can say for sure, although if you were in the area, you wouldn't have missed them.

[RoyW]

Originally Posted by Deb London

Do you mean that they might have been going to roost on the water? I realise no one can say for sure, although if you were in the area, you wouldn't have missed them.

There is always a chance that some of them might have intended to fly further, though it is probably unlikely.

One of the problems with spending a weekend in Norfolk during the winter is whether to spend the night in the east (and view the Cranes and Harriers/Merlins as they go to roost), or in the west so that you can spend dusk or dawn at Snettisham to view the geese. One solution, considering the fact that it gets dark relatively early, is to pick one for the Saturday night, then view the other on the Sunday evening before travelling home! (Alternatively, spend longer than one night in Norfolk).

[Deb London]

Yes, it was rather a long way to go for 4 hours. It was a one-off, never to be repeated, sadly.

[Jonathan]

Originally Posted by Deb London

Thanks Roy.

Do you mean that they might have been going to roost on the water? I realise no one can say for sure, although if you were in the area, you wouldn't have missed them.

The geese will probably roost on sandbars and mudflats rather than the open sea if they choose a coastal location. I don't know the habits of the geese at Snettisham but grey geese such as pinks will often roost on inland marshes whilst brents will almost certainly roost at a coastal location. Geese will move at night if their roost gets flooded by an incoming tide, and the moon effects them too. At the moment it's only a quarter moon or less, so it will have little effect, but around the time of a full moon geese will change their roosting tactics drastically as they regularly feed under the moonlight. Geese may flight in to roost, then flight out again a few hours later when the moon rises, or may reverse their habits completely, loafing about the roost during the day and flight out to feed at night.

Cheers
Jonathan

[The Woodman]

Also, they might have been disturbed from their actual or intended land roosting sites because of disturbance.

Birds have the ability to get their wet and dry landings spot on in darkness. Seasonally I see many ducks and geese coming into land in what we would call darkness - in reality there is always an amount available light whatever the cloud cover or state of moon. Never have I seen one misjudge a landing.

[Tringa]

I thought over wintering geese do roost on water and some of these will be on the sea, assuming it is not too stormy.

From Brancaster on the north coast of Norfolk I've seen hundreds of geese flying more of less due south at first light and hundreds flying north at dusk.

There is no way of knowing they were the same geese but as it happened every day for a week I thought it seemed likely it was, more or less, the same geese moving to fields to eat and to the safety of the sea to roost.

Dave

[Adam Cheeseman]

Having been up there last month and keeping a weather eye on the daily reports on the Norfolk birders website, I would still say that the vast majority of the geese you saw, if not all, (particularly based on your description) were Pink-footed Geese. There aren't that many Brents up there surprisingly and the first White-fronts are only just coming in. Canadas and the domestic jobs you hardly ever see flying around as you described. So I would put a very hefty wager on what you saw being Pinkfeet.
They do move around in huge skeins both at dawn and dusk where they are moving to and from roosting and feeding grounds. They do go a little way inland to feed on the stubble fields as well as staying on the coastal marshes. I spent one morning at Wells pre-dawn and they were out on the shallow sea waters.

Cheers,

Adam