Grey-ish Geese

This very flighty individual has discovered the seed in my garden, the first garden Reed Bunting of the winter, even though it's officially spring now:

Time finally allows a visit to the floods, which are as expansive as I've ever seen them, and have attracted a few larger gulls - with a few darker backed intermedius Lesser Black-backed Gulls in with the usual graellsii:

And then, in a moment of wild optimism, I check distant 2 swans just in case there is that one in a billion chance they might not be Mute Swans... and just to the right of them I find 2 grey geese. Now, any form of grey goose would be my first for Cuddesdon and even though my head tells me they are almost certainly domesticated Greylags, my heart tells me to walk the half mile of muddy field, just in case they are Tundra Beans... which of course they are not.

The geese rise and fly at half a fields distance, but are clearly Greylag Geese.  There are plenty of duck around though, at least 40 Teal, including one caught out in open water:

Whilst most just zip around making estimating numbers awkward:

I later catch up with the Greylags, who are more approachable when with the local Canada Geese flock. And even I, who have tramped these fields for 18 months before coming across this species, find it hard to get too excitied.

This picture gives me hope though - Special Forces, low over Garsington, hopefully removing PRB from the competition!:

I try my best to overlook a feeding flock of Golden Plover in Old Barns Field, 23 birds in total, some moulting into smart black-bellied summer plumage:

And into the sunset they go...