The morning rain soon eased, then dry with occasional sunshine. A fresh east wind.
Heysham skear - Malcolm 12:30 - 14:00
Not a lot of time today and not really a lot to see.
No Brent geese seen or heard. Just 24 Eider on the sea, no Mergansers or grebes seen.
Waders as recent including 700 Knot.
The offshore winds are still no good for stirring up the shallow water to allow the small shrimps to move into the shallows around the skear. But we are moving back towards spring tides now and the quickly ebbing water in the narrow drains is enough to muddy the water. The gulls were shrimping in the main drain, but only closer to the Stone Jetty where the drain is narrow and the mud less consolidated.
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| A line of mainly Black-Headed gulls shrimping in the drain as it meanders towards the northern edge of the skear |
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| The Knot headed towards the northern edge of the skear. The water upper right is the same drain that the gulls were feeding in, but here it widens as it passes along the edge of the skear |
Many of the Knot fed in the water, but not after shrimps, they were easily finding mussels the size they like. Presumably the flowing water was helping to expose them. You can see several mussels being swallowed in this clip.
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| Knot eating mussels |
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| Some of the Knot elected to feed on the dry mussel beds, several flagged birds read, but all seen recently. This one was ringed at Skógarnes Iceland last year |
A few Common and Black-Headed gulls tried shrimping in the drain along the skear edge, but soon gave up. But this clip does show the speed of the ebbing tide, and we are only half way to full spring tides.
