A mainly dry day with just the odd shower. A light SE wind.
Heysham skear (Malcolm) 09:30 - 10:30
Still very little, but slightly more than yesterday
Pale-bellied Brent goose 22 feeding amongst the rocks quite a way out from the play area, more were closer to the shore.
Pink-Footed Goose 14 west
Red-breasted Merganser 2
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| Red-breasted Merganser |
No Shag seen but there were two Cormorants today.
There was a handful of Herring gulls, but no Black-Headed gulls. Also no Little Egret and only two Redshank. It seems like the supply of tiny shrimps has vanished. The shrimps can't have gone, possibly the recent storm has altered the direction of drains further north. There were some Black-Headed gulls feeding in a drain closer to the Stone Jetty.
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| Gulls feeding closer to the Stone jetty. It seems as though there is a spit of mud preventing it draining past the skear. If so it will likely stay like that till the next spring tides or possibly longer |
Curlew 30
Knot 13 in one small group
Turnstone 40
Grey Plover 1
Ringed plover 28
The above two both high up the shore
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| Grey Plover |
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| Ringed Plover |
South shore
Janet checked early afternoon
There was hardly any small birds about in the nature park except for a couple of Goldcrest in different areas from each other.
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| Goldcrests |
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| Moorhens also in the Nature Park |
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| Rock Pipit exploring the fresh water run off at Red Nab. |
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| That's gutweed growing on the rocks. It doesn't look very appetising at the moment, but it is very buoyant and lifts off the rocks when the water covers it. It is what both the Brent geese and Wigeon come to feed on |
I checked later in the afternoon (Malcolm)
Pale-bellied Brent goose at least 44 came in to Red Nab
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| They came in on a much more typical low flight path today. That's No.2 outfall superstructure that they flew over yesterday |
Wigeon 120
Shelduck 12
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| This Carrion Crow was cleaning out what looks to be a fish head |
Middleton Nature Reserve (Janet)
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| Tufted Ducks |
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| The Gadwall were finding plenty of pondweed to feed on |
Imperial Rd (Malcolm)
Just one check today, the water table has significantly reduced from its peak, possibly why there was at least one Water Rail squealing.
Teal 2
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| Teal |
Grey Heron 1
Stonechat - just the female seen feeding on the distant Reedmace, the male was probably somewhere close by
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| Female Stonechat |
Kestrel 2 - were trying to have a rest, but the Magpies weren't happy!
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| Both Kestrels in this shot |
