Blast from the past: first for Suffolk finally accepted!

I have just received an e-mail and spoken to Nick M about a Ross's Goose that I saw way back in January 2008 along Market Lane, Somerleyton. This bird has just been accepted and was the first for Suffolk and the Suffolk Ornithological Records Committee has me down as the finder! I'm not sure if that is correct, So gazing back through the mists of time here are my recollections of this momentous event. Fortunately I have my field notes taken at the time, and a good memory of seeing the bird, however my memory of who found the bird in particular is hazy, if I had found it, I feel sure I would have remembered that! If anyone has any recollection of seeing this bird, who found it and has any pictures of it I'd love to hear from you. Way back in 2008, in an era when Birdlines had to be rung up in order to receive news and there were no smart phones, I had heard about a Ross's Goose [Anser Rossii] which had been seen in the Yare Valley by news from our good friend Peter A, a well known Yarmouth birder who found many stunning rarities along the Breydon shores, the news had been disseminated and circulated by Robert Wil to local birders, Peter A who had kindly informed us it has flown south- east and heading our way. The weather the preceding week had been stormy with a series of fast flowing low pressure systems sweeping across the country direct from the United States, perfect weather to bring our star visitor! On Sunday 13th January 2008, I drove to Market Lane, Somerleyton and was delighted to meet my great friend of then 29 years standing, the late Ricky Fairhead, another well known local birder, a great field birder like Peter A, who again had found many rarities in the local area. We knew there had been a then recent remarkable concentration of Pink- footed Geese at Somerleyton, which then was a recent phenomenon as there had been previously quite scarce in Suffolk during the late twentieth and early 21st century. I parked up my Vauxhall Corsa carefully at the side of the road and Ricky and I used the hedge to shield ourselves from the masses of the Pink- footed Geese assembled in the fields right in front of us. Very carefully we set our scopes up and it was then that Ricky and I concurrently both spotted the Ross's Goose straight away, it was at the back of the flock but it stood out like a gleaming white beacon! It was a very striking white- phase adult bird. In size and shape, it was a small stocky Goose being around 2/3 the size of the Pink-feet with striking white plumage, a pure white squarish head, a stocky, short thick white neck being noticably shorter in proportion than the longer thinner necks of the Pink- feet. It had black wing tips- primaries with crucially a greyish alula seen in flight (another difference with adult Snow Goose). It also had a small 'petite' tiny pink bill (proportinately smaller than the larger more substantial bill of a Snow Goose [Anser caerulescens]), with a little grey around the base (another difference to the similar Snow Goose), too. Other bare parts included short pink legs and black eye. It was seen amongst the swathes of Pink- footed Geese. When a group of birds took to flihght it flew a short way showing the greyish alula and emphasising its small size and short thick neck broadening as it met the main body of the bird. The weather was grey and overcast and slightly misty, and had been for sometime over the preceding period, following a period of westerly winds. The Ross's Goose was walking amongst the flock occasionally pecking at the ground and both Ricky and I spent a little while looking at this Goose. It was a textbook example, its small size, greyish alula, shorter thick neck and dainty bill eliminated the possibility of it being a Snow Goose, the only species it could be conceivably confused with. I heard that subsequently, just a day later, that Brian S and Richard D had seen this bird again plus in addition, the added bonus of a wild Snow Goose that had also previously been in Norfolk and again flown across the border into Suffolk. Sadly the larger Anser didn't hang around to be twitched by other local birders or myself. Ross's Geese is a vagrant from North America and its status like that of the Snow Goose is often tainted with the possibility of them being escapes from collections. What elevated the chances of this and both Brian's Snow Geese being wild birds is that they were with large flocks of known carrier species, the Pink- footed Geese and they had also been previously seen in Norfolk which had hosted more record of wild birds of both species. POSTSCRIPT: It's likely that Andrew E found this bird.