Saturday 24 December 2011

Unhappy Guillemots

Heysham Obs
Bit of a sign of a 'wreck' this morning with at least 7 Guillemot off the mouth of the harbour with an additional dead one being eaten by gulls.  Thanks to Malcolm for many of the following:

North harbour wall/outfalls
Glaucous Gull - juvenile on Fisher's roof, then in harbour late morning, but could not be found earlier
Med Gull - 3 adults
Shag - 3 in the SW corner of the harbour (plus one Cormorant), one roosting at the same time on the wooden jetty (all juvs)
Kittiwake - in the absence of any boat traffic, just 17 seen (4 of these on the outfalls), all but 4 were 1CY (morning), increasing to c30 on the waterfall in the afternoon, plus another 30 behind a ferry and 4-5 on outfalls 
Guillemot - one in the harbour, at least 7 inshore and one dead one
Twite - 11 (one 2011 Machrihanish-ringed bird and one unringed bird)
No sign of any Little Gulls on the outfalls (yesterdays bird was only seen following the IOM ferry)

Ocean edge saltmarsh
High tide produced:
Jack Snipe - one
Common Snipe (2)

Middleton NR
Paucity of wildfowl continues with just one f/imm Pochard of note