Thats more like it

With a coaching session this morning in Cardiff, I got down early to visit the bay to see if either of the Ring-necked Ducks were still about. At the wetlands reserve, the only wildfowl apart from Mallards were singles of Tufted Duck and Pochard. Moving round to the icerink and I found the flock of Tufties. I counted 198, all with their heads down snoozing. No sooner had I finished counting than several more groups flew in taking the flock to over 300, plus a single Pochard. Unfortunately there was no sign of the Ring-necks.

After my coaching session I decided to head over to Goldcliffe, mainly as the hides could provide shelter from the rain. Walking into the reserve I managed to see my first Fieldfares for this winter. I've heard a few, but hadn't managed to actually see one. Fortunately the hedges round Goldcliffe were full of thrushes, includes many Fieldfare.

The first lagoon was pretty dead, a few Canada's, a couple of Shelduck and the Peregrine sat on the island. The second lagoon was a bit busier with a few Teal and Shovler, and a group of Graylags on the bank.

Entering the sea wall hide, I met Matt Meehan, who was glad to see me as he had just found 2 Bean Geese to go with a White-fronted, 4 Barnacles and a single Dark-bellied Brent. The Bean's were with the Greylags. I quickly found them, and commented that one of thems bill looked a bit pink. However, both then decided to sit down and pug their heads down before we could get any better looks. Fortunately Matt had a couple of digiscope photo's. Looking at these, it became clear that one was a juv Tundra Bean Goose and the other was an adult Pink-foot. It turns out that the Tundra Bean is a first for Gwent, with the Gwent listers soon making there way down to twitch it. 

The Tundra Bean, Pink-foot and the White-front were all year ticks, taking my year list to bang on 200. 

Those, with the Brent, the 4 Barnacles and the resident Canada's and Greylags, meant I clicked 7 species of geese in a single afternoon in Wales.