Wild Goose Chase!!!!

 First the good news, reports of Mr White-Eye's demise were greatly exaggerated! He is back and strutting his stuff around the garden with a lady in tow!!! No sign at the moment of the usurper that we thought had ousted him!!

 Now, after yesterday's awesome trip to Elmley Nature Reserve yesterday  ( report to follow, spoiler alert Owls!!) I was going to have a nice relaxing Sunday of cake making and watching footy🎂⚽however news on Birdguides that the Lesser White-fronted Geese (LWFG) that had been reported on Henfield Levels had been seen again!! These would be a Lifer for me, despite the fact that they were probably from the Swedish re-introduction so most birders wouldn't tick them, most!!😀😀 Anyway I dragged my weary carcass out of bed at first light and made the thankfully short trip to Henfield, parked near the pub and followed the Downs Link to the viewing area and scanned for the Geese. Sounds simple eh? Should have read, did a mile and a half route march, in wellies on a stony path carrying my Scope,Bins and Camera, total weight 4000kg, seeing nothing!! I reached the viewing area and started scanning, a lot of Wigeon, Teal, a few Pintails, some Tufties, Gulls, couple of Swans, the expected geese, Canadas, Greylags and Egyptian, Heron, large amount of Lapwings, a Green Woodpecker, I also heard a couple of drumming Great Spotted Woodpeckers, the highlight though was seeing two Kingfishers. No sign of any LWFG though! At this point I did what I should have done before setting out and checked Birdguides 😏 

Bugger!!!

So to sum up, I had risen pre-dawn, driven on icy roads, route marched the best part of 4 miles carrying nearly my bodyweight in equipment, to fail to find something that wasn't there in the first place 😪😪😪😪😰😰😱😱😲😲😲😟😟😃😃😁😁😢😢!!! Lol! I'm not bitter about it!! 😏 I can't really be to critical I've made my share of ID Faux Pas in my time, turned many an Egret into Barn Owls, not to mention turning a baby coot into a Redhead Smew!!😲(you had to be there!)  It's surprising though as the LWFG went out on Birdguides  a few times over the last couple of weeks! So were they always GWFG, which were reported a few weeks a go, or have there been both in the area, The two flock theory!! Who knows, I didn't find either so a moot point😏😁😁You gotta laugh and I got to see two Kingfishers which is always good, I also found out that despite having several cracks my Wellies don't leak which is a bonus!! Least it weren't raining!! A few pics below of what I did see!

Egyptian Goose 

Wigeon

Kingfisher (typically the close one was buried in a tree, the distant one out in the open)

Pintail

Lapwing

The other Kingfisher, timing, direction and  distance means it has to be a different bird!

Teal

Wigeon

Pintail, about the only bird on the water close enough for a picture!