Visitors from Canada on their winter hols.

A small gaggle of Brent geese Branta bernicla recently arrived at the river mouth. These small geese, the size of mallard ducks, are prodigious travellers.
There are two distinct races. Dark-bellied brent geese breed in northern Russia and spend the winter in southern and eastern England. Pale-bellied brent geese breed mostly in Canada, Svalbard and Greenland and spend the winter mostly in Ireland and Scotland. 
Our visitors are the pale-bellied race and come April they will once more take to the skies and return to Greenland/Canada to breed.