Another non county tick

Still fed up with the local scene, I decided to go out of the County again this afternoon to go and see two Taiga Bean Geese in Worcestershire.  Although Tundra and Taiga Bean Geese are not split into two separate species by the BOU, I still wanted to go and view them anyway as I had only ever seen Tundra Bean Geese before.  Taiga Bean Geese I believe are usually restricted to the Norwich area each winter in the south of the UK and therefore I could not pass the opportunity of seeing them relatively close to home.  The birds were not that difficult to find and were associating with some Cananda and Greylag Geese just north of Kemerton Lake.

Taiga Bean Goose

On the way back home, we popped by Hampton Woods and bumped into an old family friend of my birder's wife.  He informed us that a Great Grey Shrike had been seen nearby on a farm about two weeks previously but had now departed. We had a pleasant walk round the reserve which had nothing except for loads of singing Chiffchaff and several singing Goldcrests.