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.

The High Tide Roost at Two Tree Island

22nd December 2025

As I have said on previous posts the high tide roost at Two Tree Island is always changing. I visit once a month during the winter months and the composition and numbers of waders changes each time, so lets see what happens today. As I was settling down in the hide a Goldfinch came to say hello.

There were a few wildfowl present, mainly Teal and Wigeon.

Here is a spring of Teal so named as, like all surface-feeding duck, they spring into the air when they take off.

The male Wigeons were looking resplendent in their fresh plumage ready for the breeding season. Just love the patch of green on the head which catches the light.

For the first few years I visited Two Tree Island a Kingfsher would often sit on the sluice on the northern bank of the saline lagoon. I haven't seen it there for a few years, but it was back again today and hope one day it will come and use the Kingfisher perches strategically positioned by the bank in front of the hide.

Of the waders already on the lagoon were the usual Redshanks and Lapwings.

Also a lone Curlew, dwarfing a Grey Plover

The Black-tailed Godwits seem to have moved on now and are down from 1500 on the 24th August to just five birds today.

Also about five Grey Plovers which seems to be about the norm.

By now the tide was coming in and waders started to leave the estuary mud and come into the lagoon to roost, starting with the Dunlin.

Then there was a wave of Ringed Plovers.

And finally the biggest flocks were the Knot which circled the lagoon several times.

So were there any differences today? There certainly were. In the early years I started coming here I don't recall seeing many if any geese, but there have been a few Brent Geese more recently, but never more than five. But today amid a cacophony of noise a large flock of Canada Geese descended from the neighbouring fields and landed on the lagoon.

There were also a number of Brent Geese amongst them.

 

In all there were 200 Canadas and 20 Brent Geese. A local birder in the hide said he had never seen so many before, and that he hoped it wouldn't happen again!!!

So what about the other changes? Well, as I have already said large numbers of Black-tailed Godwits arrive in August and then decline in numbers before the end of the year. This seems to be a pattern seen every year, but I have no idea where they go.

Also several hundred Knot circled the lagoon on a number of occasions, but only 30 landed whereas there sometimes can be 1000+.

In fact the biggest change today was the total number of waders present. On previous visits the number of waders in the high tide roost varied from a minimum of 1000 birds to a maximum of 3000+, but today there only 200 present. These were mainly Dunlin, Ringed Plover, Redshank and Knot, five Grey Plover and five Black-tailed Godwit. Moreover there was no obvious explanation such as disturbance by a bird of prey etc.

I wonder what the next visit will bring?