Canada goose ( Branta canadensis )

An early start, well early for us, we were on the road towards Amble by 9:00.  A nice clear run with a break for coffee at Brockbushes near Hexham.
We located the hotel and then headed for Northumberland Wildlife Trust Reserve at Hauxley.  Lunch in the cafe and then off in clear sunshine round the reserve.

What a fabulous day!  Great weather and masses of birds, unfortunately, most views were almost directly into the sun, not good for photography but that doesn't detract from the enjoyment of the wildlife.  A number of major highlights.  The variety of birds, the numbers of birds, and the activity of them.  The blip is from one of a number of flights of Canada Geese that flew over our heads to land on the water.  The extra is a small section of the thousands of Pinkfeet (OK pedant pinkfooted geese) we saw flying in the distance.  Another very pleasing sight was flocks of Curlew.  Curlew are in decline when I surveyed for the 2007-11 Atlas there were three territories on the walk, the last time I did the walk there were none.  So it was delightful to see two or three flocks of 20 to 30 birds in each flock.

The species list stands at:

Dunnock
Blue Tit
Mallard
Goldfinch
Bullfinch
Blackbird
Magpie
Greylag
Pinkfoot
Moorhen Curlew
OystercatcherRobin
Pheasant
Teal
Heron
Lapwing
Dabchick (Little Grebe)
Carrion Crow
Chaffinch
Wigeon