More pairing up

Very light, still at times, breeze from west/SW. occasional light rain but mainly dry and overcast.

Middleton Nature Reserve (MD)

Just a handful of Teal hiding in the margins on the "no swimming" pond

Main pond

The usual 2 adult and 5 immature Mute

Moorhen 4

Gadwall 4

Mallard 6

Coot 2 - there has just been a solo bird this year so far. But two together today.

South Shore (MD)

Great Spotted Woodpecker 2 - as soon as I got out of my car at the beginning of the Nature Park, one was drumming. Two then circled the trees, calling to each other, before resting in the trees near the white barrier.

Not really much to see here, the male is top left, with the female bottom centre. 

The female was hard to see through the twigs, but I did manage this identifiable clip of the male. You can hear his mate making contact calls 

Wigeon 318 waiting for the tide to reach Red Nab

Shelduck 105 feeding out from the foreshore. These are a few of them sifting small invertebrates from the mud surface. It was becoming quite misty as the tide covered the mud.

Kittiwake 20 - 2 adult and a 1st winter on No.1 outflow. 2 adult and 15 x 1st winter in harbour

Rock Pipit 4 - saltmarsh, Red Nab plus 2 individuals along the sea wall.

Linnet 2 near lighthouse 

Bar-Tailed Godwit 1 flew along the sea wall with the Curlew.

Bar-Tailed Godwit with Curlew

Not seen this dredger before, it's a belter! The Sospan-dau. 

Apparently, Sospan is Welsh for saucepan. As far as I'm concerned it is also Lancashire for saucepan! Dau is Welsh for two. So, the second in a line of dredgers named saucepan - oh the romance of the dredger ship namers!

Howard sent these shots. It's the old heliport sloping sea wall. This first shot was taken with his phone camera during storm Eunice last February, it shows the power of the waves here.

This next shot is today and shows that sections of the concrete wall at the Cafe end have been broken away. It isn't a coincidence that the damaged section hasn't got any protective boulders at the base.

I don't know what substrate is behind the concrete, but once exposed like this I imagine that it will quickly erode and undermine the wall. As Howard says, something to keep an eye on, particularly if we get storms during the upcoming high spring tides. (MD)