Pink-footed Goose on the River Severn

Adult Pink-footed Goose on the River Severn at Leighton

 Late this morning, I heard a Redpoll in the garden. I looked out of the window and to my surprise saw a Grey Heron fly over the houses and circle the garden before resting on top of next doors tall conifer. It was obvious that it wanted to come down to the garden pool, but after a few minutes, it was spooked and flew off NW. I could see birds moving in the birch tree and found 3 Lesser Redpolls feeding with 10 Goldfinches. The heron was a new garden tick, but I had 5 Lesser Redpolls with 2 Mealy Redpolls back in the early 90's when we had that mega Arctic and Mealy Redpoll invasion year.

This immature Grey Heron was a first for the garden

One of the 3 Lesser Redpolls in the garden

 A look at Trench Pool found the drake Gooseander still present and then it was off to check the River Severn at Leighton. With the rise in temptures and the ice melting, the river had risen slightly. However, it was more or less the same wildfowl I saw a few days ago. 1 Little Grebe, Pair of Pintails, 21 Goosanders, 25 Wigeon, 29 Coots and 50+Mallards. The highlight came near the end when I found an adult pink-footed Goose on the bank. Soon as it spotted me, it swam across to the otherside of the river. It's over 15 years ago since I saw a Pink-foot in Shropshire.
 As I was near, I thought I would go and see if there was any change in the swan numbers at Cressage. Except for lower numbers in Mute Swans, there were still the 3 Whooper and 8 Bewick's Swans in the kale fields.

Up to 21 Gooseanders were on the River Severn

The Pink-footed Goose kept to the far side where it felt a lot safer

River Severn at Leighton