Trip away from SS15 - Marsh Farm and River Crouch, South Woodham Ferrers, Essex - 25th January 2022

Today I visited Marsh Farm and the adjacent River Crouch in South Woodham Ferrers. This brought back memories from many years ago since this area was my local patch in the 1970s when I lived in South Woodham Ferrers (reached by bike in my days before I learnt to drive!).

The main purpose of my visit was to see a Red-breasted Goose which had been present with the large flock of Dark-bellied Brent Geese for several days. This is assumed to be the same bird that was seen on the Dengie peninsula in December and subsequently at RSPB Wallasea Island and EWT Blue House Farm, all sites in south Essex.

The Red-breasted Goose is a very brightly marked species and it is the smallest of the black geese of the genus Branta. This species breeds in Arctic Siberia and most birds winter along the north western shores of the Black Sea in Bulgaria, Romania and Ukraine (occasionally moving further south west to Greece) but some winter in Azerbaijan. It is a rare vagrant to the UK and western Europe where it is sometimes found with flocks of Brent Geese or Barnacle Geese. However, since it is common in captive wildfowl collections, escapees outside its usual range are fairly frequent.

When I arrived at the end of Marsh Farm Road in South Woodham Ferrers and the River Crouch, I walked along the sea wall eastwards and quickly found the large flock of Dark-bellied Brent Geese.

However, despite repeated scanning through the flock with my telescope, I failed to find the Red-breasted Goose. Eventually, after almost giving up, it revealed itself although unfortunately the view was very distant albeit acceptable through a telescope. I took a few record photos and the Red-breasted Goose is the furthest left bird in the rear flock ....

After some time, the complete flock of geese took off and flew towards me and over my head but the majority then turned and returned to join a much smaller flock of Dark-bellied Brent Geese already present much closer to my viewpoint on the sea wall ....

Fortunately, the flock still included the Red-breasted Goose and I was able to take some much better photos, albeit only cropped record photos in the poor light.

Here is another photo of a Red-breasted Goose, a captive bird in the collection at the WWT London Wetland Centre.

Here are some more photos of the Dark-bellied Brent Geese ....

In addition to the Red-breasted Goose, a Pale-bellied Brent Goose and a Black Brant had also previously been reported in the goose flock.

Unlike the Dark-bellied Brent Geese, which breeds on the northernmost tundra of central Siberia and winters in the UK largely between the estuaries of the Humber and the Exe (including in large numbers in Essex), the Pale-bellied Brent Goose has 2 populations, the first breeding on Spitsbergen and Franz Josef Land and wintering in the UK in Northumberland and the second breeding in northern Greenland and north east Canada and wintering mainly in Ireland and the north and the west of the UK.

The Black Brant breeds in Arctic Canada, Alaska and eastern Siberia. Siberian birds are annual winter visitors to south east England with Dark-bellied Brent Geese whereas Canadian birds are annual winter visitors to Ireland with Pale-bellied Brent Geese. 

During my visit, I did find the Black Brant after much careful scanning through the flock of Dark-bellied Brent Geese but I failed to find the Pale-bellied Brent Goose.

Both the Red-breasted Goose and the Black Brant were my 4^th records in the UK (the first since 2013 and 2011 respectively).

Other records during my visit were: Teal (3), Mallard (3), Curlew (23), Black-tailed Godwit (13), Lapwing (c.50), Common Redshank (c.30), Dunlin (14), Oystercatcher (6), Turnstone (3), Little Grebe (10), Mute Swan (16), Moorhen (2), Little Egret (1), Cormorant (1), Black-headed Gull (+), Lesser Black-backed Gull (3), Kestrel (1), Cetti’s Warbler (1 singing male heard), Starling (+++)

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