Gold strike and Moonshot upstaged!

Another dry and largely sunny day, with a south wind

Heysham Nature Reserve 

Report by Jean:

Struck gold again today - Gold-finches that is! 12 of the 28 birds caught were Goldfinches. Only 3 of them were retraps, including one from 2022. 
Other birds caught were as follows:
Blue Tit 1 new
Coal Tit 1 new
Great Tit 2 new, 1 retrap from 2023
Long-tailed Tit 1 new, 2 retraps
Greenfinch 4 new
Robin 2 retraps
Dunnock 1 retrap.

No warblers at all today either in the nets or on the reserve.

South shore (Malcolm)

I walked in with the tide out from the saltmarsh this afternoon. There was a reasonable selection of waders, but so not many of them.

Oystercatcher 200 feeding along the waterline (many more on Red Nab)

Curlew 131 flew from the north side in several groups.

Bar-Tailed Godwit 5 feeding at the waterline.

Bar-Tailed Godwit

Knot 5 

Grey Plover 2 along the waterline plus 5 resting higher up the shore

Knot and a Grey Plover (right)

Some of the resting Grey Plover

Redshank 33 near the saltmarsh 

No Lapwing seen

The Manxman was just heading out. This shot shows the Cormorants on
the wooden jetty, but also shows just how large the Manxman is

Little Egret 5 between saltmarsh and Red Nab

Linnet 19 on the saltmarsh 

Rock Pipit 3 (2 + 1 on the foreshore)

Rock Pipit

Shelduck 45 feeding on the mud

Wigeon 65 arrived to feed at Red Nab

The above clip plus these gull shots are actually from yesterday, but the Wigeon and the same selection of gulls were present today.

Four Great Black-Backed gulls

A Great Black-Backed with Black-Headed gulls

A Great and a Lesser Black-Backed gull
plus a Herring and a couple of Black-Headed gulls

No Mediterranean gulls located today or yesterday 

Cetti's warbler very vocal around the "no swimming" pond on Middleton Nature Reserve - Janet

Kevin Eaves took this lovely shot of 

Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS through his telescope 

last night. It is still quite bright, but fading quickly.

Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS
Somewhat more distant than yesterday's shot of the moon!