Relocated Pale-bellied Brent Geese

Having not seen the PBBGs the previous evening as I had to leave as I had a talk for the Waveney Bird Club, they had returned mid- morning to Ness Point but departed before I could do a lunchtime switch reports stated they may have landed in Lowestoft harbour. So directly after work on Thursday 10th September. I drove to the Promenade along South Beach and I initially parked up and walking out with just binoculars for optical aids. As the sea came into view, I could see a line of Pale- bellied Brent Gesese swimming left just in front of the rocky defence reef, by Children's corner. So I quickly walked back to the car retrieved my tripod and 2 cameras with 500mm lens & 1.4X converter plus the 100-400mm lens and then went back. There were some metal steps down to a small beach area and I walked slowly down initially counting 14 and then finally all 15 of the fabulous Pale-bellied Brent Geese, a race of Brent Goose that hails from Svalbard in the high Arctic with a population of only about 6,000- 8,000. Sobering to think that just days ago they were trying to avoid hunting Polar bears! They were initially swimming in a line right by the defence rocks but then they swam right to the corner and then stepped out of the water. They kept going further out to the rocky reef and then returning to the beach at one point several birds were just feet from me. Rob H. and a couple arrived. The Geese again swam right up to us, a couple flapped their wings as they reached shore and then they swam to a more weedy area of rocks just right of us, where 3 birds fed on the seaweed.