A-maizing Geese

Highlights from visits yesterday morning and again today were the huge numbers of geese working their way through the maize fields. Unfortunately, I couldn't see any 'wild' geese, but at least 800 greylags (including a handful of orange-collared birds) and around 150 Canada geese were present.
Obviously, such a large concentration of geese at a solid food source could easily pull in some passing geese of less dubious origin so regular checks should prove worthwhile (as per the whitefronts recently).
Freeman's Pools had 6 goldeneye in residence, along with ever growing numbers of gadwall, plus 3 tufted duck.
The hedges around the maize fields were positively jumping with chaffinches and reed buntings, yesterday. The only other things I could find among them were a pair of tree sparrows.
A couple of stock dove are still kicking around the area and good numbers of fieldfare, plus a smattering of redwing continue to feast on the remaining berries.
Raptors have been in short supply lately with just the occasional sparrowhawk and kestrel being seen with any regularity. I had great views however of a merlin in pursuit of a snipe over The Flood yesterday morning.
I haven't seen anything particularly interesting drifting in with the rising high tides, but if the current forecast comes to fruition we might have better luck with some windblown waif in the next couple of days.

Jon