Bits and Bobs Autumn 2010

[donedigging]

Good evening OH,

hope you remembered to re-set the clock tower this morning aswell

I spent my extra hour in bed aswell

[peter]

Arriving at Welwyn RFC in plenty of time for my U17 teams friendly match, thus looking in here from the carpark!

My apologies: I had you down as older than that, Peter!

You cheeky little rodent!

I'm the manager, it was a good tough and tight match each team 'won' a half each with a converted try ending the game 7 all.

[oldherbaceous]

Morning Donedigging, indeed i did remember to do the Church clock, tick tocking away nicely.

Sounds as is your gained hour was very restful.

Morning Peter, i think it is really nice when old people still get involved.

[Parsons Jack]

Morning Donedigging, indeed i did remember to do the Church clock, tick tocking away nicely.

Sounds as is your gained hour was very restful.

Morning Peter, i think it is really nice when old people still get involved. :)

Leading with your chin again OH

[oldherbaceous]

I'm starting to feel like Bruce Forsyth.

[peter]

I'm starting to feel like Bruce Forsyth.

Ah, that explains the Milton Bryan straw shortage.

Perhaps one day OH will train a.small furry animal to sit on his bald patch instead of putting straw on it.

Mouse watch out!

[Nature's Babe]

Well it looks like being another mild week, i saw another 3 skeins of geese heading off in a NW direction yesterday, they must have had a very successful breeding season , I have never seen so many skeins of geese, their honking always announces their presence, however yesterday was very unusual, for the first time in autumn I actually saw one skein flying in the opposite direction - flying back to their breeding grounds

[oldherbaceous]

Now then Peter, people will be getting the wrong impression about me.

Dear Nature's Babe, we never seem to get many migratory birds flying over, here, or maybe it's just that i'm not observant enough.

[Parsons Jack]

Well it looks like being another mild week, i saw another 3 skeins of geese heading off in a NW direction yesterday, they must have had a very successful breeding season , I have never seen so many skeins of geese, their honking always announces their presence, however yesterday was very unusual, for the first time in autumn I actually saw one skein flying in the opposite direction - flying back to their breeding grounds

Hi NB,

I'm afraid that geese are such a common all year round occurrence at Dungeness RSPB reserve that they hardly ever merit a mention on their website.

[Nature's Babe]

Parsonsjack, yes i noticed that - I tried to look up where they migrate to and couldn't find it on their website.
Hi OH, the geese honking loudly on their way makes it difficult not to notice them at the start of their journey, maybe they quieten as they tire.

[The Mouse]

I'm starting to feel like Bruce Forsyth.

Ah, that explains the Milton Bryan straw shortage.

Perhaps one day OH will train a.small furry animal to sit on his bald patch instead of putting straw on it.

Mouse watch out!

This would be better, for winter anyway!

[Parsons Jack]

Parsonsjack, yes i noticed that - I tried to look up where they migrate to and couldn't find it on their website.
Hi OH, the geese honking loudly on their way makes it difficult not to notice them at the start of their journey, maybe they quieten as they tire.

That's the thing though NB, if they were Canada or Greylag Geese, they were not migrating anywhere. There are upwards of 30,000 breeding pairs of Canada Geese resident in the UK.
They might well have fancied a day trip to Slimbridge reserve, or maybe Haysden in Tonbridge

[peter]

NB get a paper map of the UK, find East Sussex, draw a line fom it in the direction 'your' geese are flying, then starting from home look along the track for where they could be going.

Any large body of inland water, an estuary etc. if nothing obvious and the flight is in the evening go larger scale and look closer to home.

[Monika]

Most of fhe skeins seen at this time of the year, particularly those characteristic V-shaped ones, are pink-footed geese coming in from their breeding grounds on Greenland and Iceland and spending their winter here, some places like the WWF reserve at Minsmere receiving thousands of them. But, of course, they don't stay in one place and move about during the winter, hence their flights in different directions.

They will leave us again in early spring, back to their northern breeding grounds.

[Nature's Babe]

Thank you for your help everyone, will try a bit of detective work with flight path and a map. On Romney in the summer we see mostly canada geese and white fronted geese, I see them leave usually late afternoon for several weeks in autumn, returning again in spring. Maybe the ones going the other way were pink footed geese They fly quite high and its a job to tell them apart in flight againxt the light. Always glad to see them return in spring it tells me the worst of the winter is behind us.