TOUCH WOOD, CLEETHORPES LAKE'S BARNACLE GEESE SEEM TO HAVE ESCAPED AVIAN FLU

Take us to the water - barnacle geese at the boating lake last week

THERE is good news to report on Cleethorpes' unusual flock of non-migratory barnacle geese.

Elsewhere in the UK,  the species has been decimated by avian flu, but - fingers crossed - the local population seems to have remained healthy.

Although they have not been much in evidence of the boating lake, this is because they are frightened of the larger Canada geese which tend to bully them.

Instead, they have mostly been on the showground and the adjacent car parks, with occasional sorties on to Cleethorpes golf course.

In most parts of Britain, barnacle geese are winter visitors which return to Norway and other nordic climes when spring arrives.

But the instinct to migrate seems to have been bred out of the Cleethorpes birds - numbering about 100 - which are resident throughout the year.