REGARDING Harry White’s query about geese flying over Atherton early in October, the likelihood is that they would be pink-footed geese which arrive in their thousands from Iceland and Greenland in early autumn and spend the winter in the coastal areas of west Lancashire.
From time to time, probably according to weather and feeding conditions, skeins move between our region and The Wash area of Lincolnshire and Norfolk – at this time of year in a general easterly direction to the east coast and in the new year more usually westwards back towards the Lancashire coast.
Hundreds, sometimes thousands, engage in this fairly unpredictable activity, and the sight and thrilling sounds of the high-flying skeins of pink-feet are among our greatest winter spectacles.
Noisy honking groups of Canada geese also occur locally, moving chiefly to and from Pennington Flash, but they fly low and they never occur in numbers approaching those of our northern guests.
Mr White mentions Scandinavia, but the only migration at this time of year is from, not to, this part of Europe, and the most numerous visitors from there include the vast numbers of winter thrushes (redwings and fieldfares) and starlings.
David Wilson
Hoylake Close
Leigh
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