White Fronted Geese

Anser albifrons albifrons feeding.

Note the white edges of cover and tertial feathers.

Smile darling you're on camera!

My last visit to Škocjanski zatok NR yesterday (15/01/2014) produced 4 Greater White-fronted Geese and 2 Greylag Geese, sitting alongside within the reserve. 

I think the Greater White-fronted Geese (Anser albifrons) correspond to the albifrons subspecies, coming from Siberia. Note that the white front in the adults does not extend below the beak, which is pale with a pinkish tip. Also the general aspect of the bird is "light" not "dark" as it correspond to its Greenland cousin (flavirostris). However I am aware of the large variability of these features. You can have a look at the video (sorry for the quality) and photos and let me know of your thoughts :-)
Other birds around:
2 Gadwalls (my first in the reserve).
Wigeons (lots of them +40, mostly in the reserve).

1 Common Pochard, male (there must be more around).
1 Tufted Duck, female.
2 Pygmy Cormorants (in the reserve).
11 Curlews.

I couple of visits to Socerb revealed: Black Woodpecker, Goldcrest, Coal Tit and Crossbill.

New Year in Koper! It was warm, the sea calm, quite a bit of fog and large fireworks provided by the municipality to show off and make us forget all the corruption going on. In terms of birds I hit some interesting things. In Strunjan Bay, Shags, at least two males in full cortage plumage including the characteristic tuff in the forefront; Sandwich Terns, 4 adult Mediterranean Gulls and several Red-breasted Mergansers, The latter are seen regularly near the coast between Koper and Strunjan. In addition a flock of Shelducks spent a couple of days in the Lagoon.


At the beginning of December I spent a week in Spain enjoying the unusually warm weather with temperatures climbing up to 23C. A bit of birding in the west coast of Almería proved a bit dissapointing, rarities have not yet started to show up and as I write in the middle of January not much seems to be going on. Birds seem to be wating for cold temperatures and those are not coming, just yet.