‘No frost yet, but I noticed a sign that perhaps Winter weather could be around the corner,’ writes John MacDonald.
‘While in my garden this afternoon (Monday) I heard a constant honking sound. I looked up and saw a very large V formation of geese flying due East over the New Town.
Spurtle subjected MacDonald’s photographs to forensic examination and counted around 150 individual birds.
They may have been Greylags, but we think they were more likely Pinkfoots heading for Aberlady Bay, where at this time of year between 15,000 and 30,000 new arrivals from Iceland roost each evening after spending the day on farmland.
Changing agricultural practices mean the geese can now supplement or replace a mudflat-based diet of grasses with grain, sugar beet, winter cereals and potatoes from elsewhere. Numbers of the birds are now at record levels, with an estimated 365,000 overwintering in the UK.
They will be off again to their northern breeding grounds in April.
