Greylag Geese (Anser anser).

Clickychick was doing another of her 5k runs so again I was out on the bike.  As I passed her at one point she said "Did you see the Geese".  Typically I hadn't, so having been told where they were I made my way.  There grazing happily round the Petteril were 25 - 30 Greylag.  Unlike previous encounters they were near enough to get a reasonable shot.

When I was young wild geese were not a common sight, yes there were geese down on the Solway marshes  in winter, but rarely elsewhere.  Since the 80s Greylag have been increasing at approximately 10% a year up to around 2000 when the population started to level out.

The Uk population is now in the region of 47,000 pairs rising with winter migrants to around 230,000 individuals.  They are fairly long lived average age being about 8 years and breeding for 5 of those.  The oldest individual, proven by ringing, was 19 years 7 month and 4 days.