Honeycomb worms have an Achilles' heel!

A mainly dry day with just the odd light shower. The SW wind was still quite fresh.

Heysham skear (Malcolm) 09:00 - 09:45

I've never known the skear to provide such little diversity! No Gulls at all, nothing on the sea except a couple of Red-breasted Mergansers. The only waders were Oystercatcher, Curlew, Turnstone and 24 Ringed Plover high up the shore.

South shore

I checked along the sea wall this morning and returned after lunch as the tide was reaching Red Nab (Malcolm)

Kingfisher 1 flew out from the freshwater culvert on Red Nab this morning.

Nothing of note on the outfalls 

Plenty of young Herring Gulls. None of the ones ringed at the Power Station
this spring seemed to have stayed in the area. Some have been seen elsewhere
including Manchester and Merseyside 

These are the Honeycomb worm beds at the end of the sea wall. These are the
only ones that I am aware of on the south side of the harbour. Last night's storm
has removed a layer of mud from the base of the beds.

I have never seen anything trying to extract a worm. They are only small and
the clumps of Honeycomb are quite strong, despite being made of no more
 than grit and spit.

But this Turnstone saw an opportunity today......

........and extracted this worm from the newly exposed base of its tube.

Wigeon 146

This morning the Wigeon were strung out along the waterline

This afternoon they were on Red Nab

Pale-bellied Brent goose 82. They arrived in three groups from the north side, 64, 13 and 5 about 90 minutes before high water.

This is the first and largest group arriving, flying unusually high over
the top of No.2 outfall superstructure 

These were the last to arrive

Janet checked later as the tide was covering Red Nab

The Brent geese were still feeding

But not for long

Oystercatcher 

Turnstone 

Curlew

This Cormorant was the last to leave.

Imperial Rd (Malcolm)

I looked in twice, this morning I saw or heard nothing, it was the same this afternoon at first, then the two Stonechats turned up. I think it was more a case of them finding me, rather than me finding them.

Female Stonechat

Male Stonechat

Both in this shot