Sloppy bird count.......I blame the seal!

Overcast with light showers. A light west to NW breeze

South shore

I checked mid morning on the rising tide (Malcolm)

Linnet 20 around the saltmarsh plus 5 along the foreshore. There was quite a lot of chattering going on between them.

Wheatear possibly 2 - a female seen on the saltmarsh and it or another along the foreshore.

Wheatear

Meadow Pipit 1 grounded on saltmarsh 

Meadow Pipit

Rock Pipit 4 - one on Red Nab, one along the sea wall and two near the lighthouse 

The Red Nab Rock Pipit came to check me out.

The female near the lighthouse was collecting nest material.

Just about to fly down to the nest hole

Oystercatcher 600 flew south

Curlew 33 flew south

Redshank 23 feeding then resting on No.1 outfall

Turnstone 12 on wooden jetty

Swallow 1 north

Sandwich Tern 45+ - a few had been feeding out from the harbour but as the tide rose they settled on the buoys.

One on the buoy plus one on the sea

Two on this buoy

Most were on the shipping lane marker buoys, I only checked the closest three

At least 11 on No.8 buoy, that's the dump boat for the harbour dredger
 heading for the Lune deeps to discharge its load

15 on No.7 buoy

At least as many on No.5 buoy
I should have checked the others, they were too distant to be able to count
any resting birds, but I would have been able to see if any were present, at
least on No.6 buoy........

........but I was distracted 

This Grey Seal near No.1 outfall looks to be a male. He has a Bass

Seals tend to be messy eaters and attract a cloud of gulls

Having said that they are messy eaters, this clip appears to show it trying to swallow the Bass whole. I have never seen them do this, perhaps it's because it is a bull. Or perhaps it didn't actually swallow it and just enjoyed taunting the gulls with its prize.

Either way I didn't see it surface again, or at least not till later as I was heading back, it or another was swimming along No.2 outfall

Kevin checked on the ebbing tide. Still a female Wheatear on the foreshore. 

Pale-bellied Brent geese 2 arrived at Red Nab

Heysham Nature Reserve 

Janet found this shed Roebuck antler on a section of the reserve where dogs are excluded. They are typically shed after the autumn rut, so it may have been there for a while.

Naturally shed Roebuck antler

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Linda Renshaw located several fresh Otter spraints along the western edge of the main pond. On examination they contained large pieces of shell, most likely crayfish.