Portsmouth

[Dagger03]

Not intended to be a bird day, as it was a look at the university.

 

But on the drive back, going from Portsmouth along the coast from Southsea and heading toward the ferry for Hayling Island, there was a flock of brent geese - only about a hundred - but a bit further on, just past the Marine Museum, there were simply hundreds - possibly thousands - all feeding on the grass area to the left of the road. It was high tide, so I guess they were simply feeding.

 

It made me wonder just how many black brant were among them.

 

I have yet to see any guidebook which says exactly how to identify the black brant, which I think I am correct in saying is simply the USA version of the brent goose.

 

[Eastside Urchin]

it is but when you see them close up and see that there is more white on the sides(when bird is in the water) and the neck ring is thicker then you can see that they are classed now as different birds,but in all honesty they are the same just slightly differently marked.

[Dagger03]

UM - if to go to Two Tree, at high tide you can often see thousands of brent. There are usually five or six blaks among them - all you have to do is to find them - and no, I have never found them.

 

If you then go to the SOC photos pages, you will find that Stave Arlow has several pictures of black brant - as usual, he does not label which one is the black brant - but it makes an interesting half hour trying to sort out your dark from your light brents and your blacks. So far I have not managed to do it.

[Dagger03]

UM - I just followed your guidelines and picked out the black brant on the SOC pages.

 

Now - can you go to the same paqes, go onto the photo page, look at the black brant pictures, and on the photo which is the last but one, there are a lot of brent - my question is - is there one two three four or five blacks in that picture?

 

I am not at all sure.

 

You cannot download the photo so you have to look at it online.

[Eastside Urchin]

dagger,the one in focus in the picture is the only one i can see,just left of the post.

Some of the others may well be but they are so hard to define when you can't see the side of the bird,also the ring is thicker at the front of the neck!