A Wild Goose Chase at Fishers Green

27th December 2025

Christmas is over and I am in need of some fresh air and exercise so off to Fishers Green for a Wild Goose Chase. I walked up to Holyfield Farm to view the surrounding fields and was amazed at the sheer numbers of geese present. I have been here before at this time of year but never seen so many.

There were absolutely hundreds of Canada Geese, possibly as many as 700+, mainly in fairly loose flocks.

There were also 200+ Greylag Geese but too far away at the top of the field for a photograph.

The next goose encountered was the Egyptian Goose. When I was birding in the Lea Valley in the 1970s Egyptian Geese were extremely rare, in fact I can only remember seeing one in those days. Now they are common everywhere and today there were 50+ with a flock of 30 in one field alone.

There is normally a sizeable flock of Barnacle Geese at Fishers Green, but today they were obviously elsewhere and only one could be seen in amongst the Canadas. Just look at that size difference.

All of these four species of goose are resident feral birds having escaped from collections and now breeding in the wild with sustainable populations. Of course truly wild Greylags and Barnacles do exist naturally in the UK but are winter visitors to Scotland.

So what was the purpose of my visit today? Well, the clue is in the title........"Wild Goose Chase". Yes, the purpose of my visit today was to photograph the flock of truly wild White-fronted Geese that had arrived at Fishers Green.

They were quite distant but I did manage to get some shots of the rather loose flock.

As I walking back I found that three birds had moved a lot closer to the fence which allowed a few close-ups. You've got to get lucky sometimes!!!

Well that feels better and also great to meet up with Paul Hackett for the first time in several years.