Brent Geese at the Links Cricket Pitch

Up to 80 Pale Bellied Brent Geese winter in Nairn every year, travelling from their breeding grounds in the Norwegian Artic Archipelago, Svalbard.

For some reason this year they've chosen to feed on the cricket pitch and the football pitch at The Links.  Their usual feeding area is on the eel grasses on the shoreline around the golf course and along to the pool.  A friend has suggested that these may have been covered by the moving sands, and so the geese have been forced onto the pitches to feed on the grass.

 
Hopefully they will not be put off returning to Nairn, and we see them back on the beach next year, where they have been a regular source of interest for bird watchers in the area.