A visit to the roost site at Fannyside Muir last night confirmed my thoughts that the birds would take advantage of the easterlies sweeping the North Sea. I was not disappointed.
I arrived around 7pm in the gloaming and found the birds already on the roost area. There were some small flocks of Pinks also in the area adding to the atmosphere. A group of about 40 bean geese seemed to have overshot the site and came back over West Fannyside Loch from the direction of Palacerigg Country Park before joining up on the pools.
It was not possible to estimate the numbers but there was plenty of chattering going on amongst the geese.
I got out this morning before my friend Brian appeared and found c160 birds at Luckenburn. Brian arrived at 10am and after a coffee in the Slamannan Cafe we set out to spend an hour or so looking at what had come in the previous day.
Most birds could not be seen as they were sitting out of site behind the woodland edge of the field I had seen them in earlier. Later they began to appear in our vision and we managed a count of c140 with several collared birds in view. We recorded Tag03 (Green leg ring) and a pair (3X and 6Y). Two other collared birds were present but we were unable to make them out. Several family parties could be identified.
I believe someone this afternoon had a count of 154 which would seem to be about what was probably there this morning.
