Constant morning rain eased to prolonged showers by the afternoon. A south wind.
Middleton Nature Reserve (Malcolm)
I only managed a quick check of the main pond at the height of the morning rain!
I female Mute Swan still with six well grown young
Mallard 35
Tufted Duck 16
Gadwall 6
Coot 12
Moorhen 4
Little Grebe 2
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| Tufted Ducks and a Little Grebe |
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| Tufted Duck and two Little Grebes |
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| Tufted Ducks a Gadwall and a Little Grebe |
Fortunately a male Great Spotted Woodpecker provided a splash of colour
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| Great Spotted Woodpecker |
Some flagged Knot information
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| This bird on the skear earlier this month was coded at the Wadden sea in the Netherlands last November. The code is R3YPYY. R3 is the flag colour (red) and its position. The other letters are the colour of its rings: yellow, pale blue, yellow, yellow |
A few of this scheme's birds are also radio tagged. The tags are tiny and light and are shed with its feathers during moulting. This is a summary of one tagged this autumn that was tracked to our area.
R3PYPN, tag 3916. Was in the Wash before moving to Spurn Nature Reserve. Was consistently detected at Spurn until the 9th of November, when it flew to Morecambe Bay and was detected on the Walney receiver. It has received low level detections since, which means it may be on the Heysham side of Morecambe Bay.
One to watch out for. The flag is the same as the above shot and the rings are: pale blue, yellow, pale blue, black. All you would see of the tag is a fine wire beyond its tail that transmits the data.
