It was (is) a Whooper after all

A mainly overcast, but dry day. A west breeze

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Main pond

I checked in the morning (Malcolm). The Female Mute Swan still only had four cygnets with her. Janet said she saw her chasing the other three yesterday. Another immature swan had been forced high up the eastern bank by the female Mute, but this one was indeed a juvenile Whooper Swan as reported on Facebook.

Juvenile Whooper Swan

When Janet checked later it had managed to sneak nearer the water, but was keeping a wary look out

When Kevin Eaves checked just after lunch it was on the pond in the small area between the peninsula and the west bank. At least it will be able to feed itself there.

Immature Whooper Swan

Immature Mute Swan

Heysham skear (Malcolm) 10:00 - 11:30

I walked the tide in as it covered the skear

Pink-Footed goose 1 skein of 55 to SE

Eider 46

Red-Breasted Merganser 6

Great Crested Grebe 10

Great Crested grebe

Little Egret 11

No shag seen

Oystercatcher 200 but most had already left and several hundred were resting out from Heysham Head

Curlew 60

Redshank 120

There were no Knot feeding on the skear, but a flock of 74 flew south over it

Turnstone just 12 seen

Ringed Plover 3

Ringed Plover

Juvenile Ringed Plover

South shore

Janet took this phone clip of a Wheatear while exercising a dog along the foreshore 

I had a walk out from the saltmarsh 15:15, as the tide was rapidly exposing the mud (Malcolm)

The only waders high up the shore were:

Redshank 25

Grey Plover 2

Grey Plover

A feeding group of 27 Knot and 25 Dunlin

Knot and Dunlin. One of the problems of checking this flat area of shore
on the ebb tide, is that there isn't really a waterline. The mud just changes
from being covered to just being wet.

The only waders further out were Oystercatcher and Curlew, plus a solitary Bar-Tailed Godwit

Bar-Tailed Godwit 

Then the largest flock of small waders I have seen so far this autumn arrived from the south.

Turned out they were mainly Knot with Dunlin and a few Grey Plover

About half settled briefly, the others continued north

They quickly left and returned south lifting this Mediterranean gull in
the process. One of two seen

Shelduck 120 came in to feed on the shore in small groups 

Shelduck 

Back at the saltmarsh, just the east side checked.

Linnet 106 counted, probably missed some

Wheatear 2 possibly including Janet's 

Grey wag 1 - Grey wag is often used as an abbreviation for Grey Wagtail, but its use today is as a more apt description.

Grey Wag with no tail! It looked really strange in flight