Barnacle, Brill!

The monthly snipe count at FAUNA this morning yielded:
71 common snipe
4 jack snipe
7 woodcock
1 water rail

Snoozing barnacle goose with pink-footed geese

Before we commenced the count I had a wander up the path to Pony Wood.
In the fields to the west of the path there were again good numbers of pink-footed geese. I estimated the flock to contain around 1,000 birds. I only had my binocs with me so I couldn't be 100% certain that there were no further interesting interlopers among them beyond the trio of greylags and a solitary, though very welcome, barnacle goose.   
 
The female brambling was once again amongst the chaffinches in the hedgerow adjacent to the arable field.
There were around 100 linnet present in the area, plus 40+ fieldfare and a couple of dozen redwing.

Linnets

Later, I had a walk down to Freeman's Pools and the cycle track at Adcliffe. The geese were up on the drumlins, and once again I picked out the lone barnacle goose (pictured) among the pinks.
A couple of goldeneye were on the pools but nothing much else of note. I bumped into Dan who was doing a survey connected to the Morecambe Bay Partnership and he mentioned that yesterday there was a drake pochard on Freeman's Pools, plus a greenshank and kingfisher nearby.

Jon