Greylags

At first it was just a few geese flying over us in skeins of a dozen or so but, unlike the pink-footed geese which have been commuting north and south over us for some weeks, these were much lower. Suddenly....

....there were many more, and all were dropping towards the field to our left, their....

....undercarriages down, obviously intending to....

....land in the field which the farmer uses to pasture his cattle. 

Some flew across the road and landed in a field recently harvested of its barley. They were much closer to where we stood in the lane and very much on the alert.

I'm fairly sure that these are greylag geese. They're larger than the pink-footed but much the same colour; even their feet are confusing as in both species they're orangey-pink. The main difference is in their bill, which is larger in the greylag and entirely orange.

They were a welcome sight, for us if not the farmer, as these are the first greylags we've seen this autumn, and it was good that they were in such numbers.