The weather this morning was a bit more promising and I decided to head down towards Erskine to search for the flock of Tundra Bean Geese that have been getting reported recently between there and Bishopton. This is a species I have only seen once before and given the recent influx in the UK this was a good opportunity.
Erskine is not a place I know very well and I drove round for a good 20 minutes, eventuall finding Southbar but failing to see any fields with Geese in them at all. I gave up and headed towards Erskine Harbour and walked up the Clyde towards Newshot Island.
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| Newshot Island |
Again first time I had been here. It certainly appeared promising with a good selection of ducks and waders
including both Wigeon & Teal and Dunlin and Redshank and I had a probable Grey Plover. It looks as though the birds will vary depending on the tide and the area of reedbed off to the right looked promising for raptors. I seem to recollect a Marsh Harrier being reported last Spring ! With the recent extension of the M74 it is only 25 minutes from home so I hope I can do it more often. The whole area probably falls into the category of 'severely underwatched'.
Anyway back to my Goose chase. I finally found the site (not sure why I had missed it in the 1st place !), a stubble field some distance from the A8 running between Bishopton & Erskine and indeed there were several hundred Geese present. I set the scope up on the window mount and spent over an hour going through them. Given the distance and the light this wasn't easy ! By far the greatest majority were Greylag with up to 30 that looked like Pinkfeet but given the distance could well have been Tundra Bean, 4 Barnacle and 1 White Fronted. As regards the Tundra Bean I found seeing leg colour impossible and as such the record for me is inconclusive, hopefully, they will stay around and I might get another shot. At least next time I'll know where the site is.
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