Taiga's

I had to check the salinities at Buckenham and Cantley on Monday. It was one of those wall to wall blue sky days, very little wind and not a bad temperature, in short it was one of those days where you have to remind yourself your at work...the best kind! We had to traverse most of the reserves ditches so it was only a matter of time until we bumped into the goose flock. We were 'advised' that the geese were in a certain location and that we should try not to disturb them for obvious reasons, so in some ways it was lucky that 2 railway people came along the tracks in full high vis and flushed them for us. 140 grey geese got up, typically they flew into the sun so it was tricky to be sure of id's but I'm fairly positive I counted 38 Taiga Bean Geese within the flock of Pinks and White fronts, the shape and size really stands out when silhouetted. I was fairly happy with the sighting (my first taiga's for many years!) however 10 mins later I noticed 10 geese coming in from the North heading straight for me, they cant have seen me until the last minute as they flew pretty much overhead in perfect sunlight, fantastic views! Typically my camera was safely nestled at home so no pics unfortunately, but was good to be able to study them rather than trying to get photos. In total there were 48 Taiga beans, 15+ Whitefronts, 100+ Pinkies, lots of golden plovers, 15+ Ruff, 2 Peregrines as well as all the usual stuff including 2300+ Wigeon, quite a site and sound.

If viewing the geese the best place is from the main footpath from Buckenham, after the fleet check with scope on the other side of the railway. Views can also be obtained from the Cantley village side from Burnt house lane, do not enter the reserve apart from on the footpaths!