With no specs and just the naked eye they didn’t seem to show pale forewings suggesting perhaps Whitefronts or Pinkfeet rather than the expected Greylags. Raising the Zeiss and, hang on, they look rather Bean like.
It had turned from a coffee bean fix to a Bean Goose moment.
And so it was. Just the second documented record of Bean Geese for Lewis these ‘Tundra’ birds (rossicus in latin) loafed around the crofts for much of the rest of the afternoon, dodging in and out of the hairy Heilan’ Coos.
Tundra and Taiga Bean Geese can be hard to seperate in the field but after good views and a prolonged chat with Tristan in the field the comfortable conclusion was Tundra. This winter has seen an influx across Britain of these ‘Russian’ Geese with birds occuring in Shetland and a handful in Uist. These 10 though were an addition to the Brue list.
So tonight I toast Brue for another excellent record. Do kitchen windows get any better?
