Common Buzzard and Pink-footed Geese

During the autumn and winter earthworms are an important part of the Common Buzzards diet and they can be seen standing and walking, or even running sometimes, in fields in search of their prey. They often sit on the dry stone walls or, as in this case, a fence post from which they can watch their chosen field. The pale iris on this bird indicates that it is not yet an adult.

Common Buzzard

Several parties of Pink-footed Geese have overflown the area during the past week some still going SE, presumably to the Wash but other skeins have been seen heading back NW as at least 300 did this morning in 2 large skeins. There used to be a distinct gap between birds passing over SE in the autumn and early winter and returning NW in the late winter but that distinction is now rather blurred perhaps linked to the timing of food availability around the Humber and Wash.

Pink-footed Geese