30 Canada geese in a row on the Isle of Wight

Did you ever see my photo of Canada geese at Windmill End, south of the Netherton Tunnel?  I took it in a cold, rainy dusk at the end of 2006, counting up to 18 birds, and at the time I asked if anyone had seen a longer line of such birds on the water.

A year or so later - as I remarked in Yes, 23 in a row is a record - Neil of nb Herbie said he'd seen 23 'Canada goslings' following a single parent.

Alan Weight wrote to me last week: 

I was sorting through my father's photos last week when I came across one he'd taken when out sailing off the Isle of Wight and thought you might be mildly amused.

I can count 30 geese in the pic (taken on APS film) but as you can see, they continue off either side of the pic, so who knows how many there might have been!

 

Any advance on 30?  What surprises me about this is that they are on salt water.  I know there's a lot of coastline in Canada, but I hadn't realised Canada Geese were also seabirds.

Comments

[Max]

We were anchored in Newtown creek IoW July 2009 and I took similar pictures of a line of geese just like this going from one side of the creek to another.

[Mick]

Happy new year Andrew.

Many of our british inland birds move to the coast during the winter. When canals and lakes freeze the salt water is usualy still open. For waders food is much more plentiful on the costal estuary than inland mud.

mick