Christmas Geese

For my last post of 2017 it is more of the same!!  Pink footed geese have definitely been on my menu this Christmas.Each time I have been out this holiday period I have come across some large flocks of pink footed geese.They were all in the Pilling area and I suspect that it is probably the same large flock feeding in a different area when I have visited.My latest visit was on Boxing Day and when most folks were tucking into yet more turkey I was enjoying the sight of thousands of geese tucking into Pilling potatoes.

Pilling is famous for it's potatoes but this year as a consequence of the very wet weather a lot of potatoes have remained in the ground unharvested.This has meant a bonanza for the geese with many potatoes left in the fields and providing easy pickings for the pinkfeet.On Boxing Day I found the geese at Eagland Hill,a favourite area for geese and whooper swans throughout the winter months.The light was good for a change,brighter and sunnier conditions,much better than the dark and dismal weather of late.

I enjoyed myself with the camera from the comfort of the car and some of my better efforts are shown below.Hope you enjoy the images of the pink footed geese at Eagland Hill and this will more than likely be my last posting for 2017.Thanks to everybody who has followed my travels through the year and let's hope we all enjoy a happy and healthy New Year.

Pilling Pinks

Happy Christmas Day to all my followers.Hopefully none of the thousands of pink footed geese shown below will have found their way onto today's dinner tables.It has been a very dull and dismal week with mist and drizzle, certainly not ideal conditions for the camera but I needed  a change of scene.So I drove around the Pilling area and eventually found this very large gathering of pink footed geese situated close to the road.I made the best I could of the situation and took plenty of images.

I will return soon with more from my travels and would like to wish everyone a happy and healthy New Year.Thanks for looking in.

Pinks Galore

Following on from my last posting I am now showing some of the many images I took last week highlighting the large numbers of pink footed geese present at the the very large gathering of pinkfeet and whooper swans at Pilling.I have never seen as many geese occupying a field.The images cannot show all of the geese but there were certainly many many thousands.It was an incredible sight and the sound of them all when they took to the air was memorable.

I was fortunate to be in the right place at the right time to capture the spectacle and I made the most of the wonderful opportunity by taking a camera full of images.Hope you like the selection below but it was one of those occasions where you have to be there to fully appreciate what was happening.I will of course return to the location over the coming months hoping for more wonderful encounters with the geese and swans.Thanks for looking in and enjoy what looks like being a very wintry weekend with snow forecast for tomorrow.

Super Whoopers

At the end of last month I visited the Pilling and Cockerham area of Lancashire.This area is visited in the winter months by large flocks of pink footed geese and whooper swans.There are rich pickings to be had in the fields with left over remains of potato and other vegetable crops.This winter in particular has been very wet and many farmers have been unable to harvest their crops.On my wanderings around the lanes and back roads I came across a very large number of geese and swans gathering in a roadside field prior to roosting out on Pilling Sands.The birds were coming in large groups particularly the geese and were settling in the field giving me some wonderful opportunities with the camera.

It was a bright cold and sunny afternoon and was ideal for photography and I was able to stay in the comfort of the car using it as a mobile hide.I was amazed at the numbers of birds and can only say that there were many thousands of pink footed geese and many hundreds of whooper swans.For this post I have concentrated on the whooper swans.The pink footed geese will be the subject of my next post.I took about two and a half thousand images  over two days and have spent a week or so sifting and sorting.I hope you enjoy my selection of these magnificent visitors from Iceland.It was a most memorable experience and one I will be unlikely to repeat for some time.Thanks for looking in and stay tuned for the next instalment.