Ratty webs

A rat was a pain today as it disturbed the heliport roost necessitating a recount and backtrack to sites already counted!  The webs was otherwise fairly routine with just a single ad med gull on fishers roof of note - presumably the Czech bird.

North Harbour Wall - low tide a.m.
No sign of Twite reported on  Friday.
On feeding area:
Linnet - 10, 3 of them wearing rings
Robin - 1
Dunnock - 1
Rabbit - 2

RFI

Anyone able to add any more to the report of 43 finches including about 30 Twite at the north wall feeder during the heavy seas and therefore saltmarsh flooding on Friday 13th please?  Thanks.

Yesterday saw the model boat pond living up to its name and the winter duck were dispersed, including the Pochard off-site somewhere and 5 of the Gadwall to the no swimming pond.

Tide miscalculation

Arrived at Ocean Edge salt marsh an hour before high tide, but the marsh was already almost completely covered. Even so a reasonable count:
Common snipe 98
Jack snipe 3
Ringed plover 3
Reed bunting 1
MD

Model boat pond
As you were
Pochard - male and female
Tufted Duck - 5
Gadwall - 7
Little Egret - 1

Big seagull dearth

Had about an hour to spare today and decided to scan all the likely spots for large Larids but there were hardly any including a notable zero on the model boat pond

Little gull - adult offshore

Pochard - male and female model boat pond

Gadwall - 7 mbp

Just out of the area was an ad med gull on the mudflats by the battery 

Middleton update

A circuit of Middleton Nature Reserve late morning failed to relocate yesterday's Scaup, but Tim Butler pond is largely obscured and it could easily have been missed.
Male and female Pochard now feeding together on model boat (main) pond.
Cetti's warbler  and Water rail calling from western scrape, the former very intermittently.

Mute 4 adult + 4 immature
Tufted 6
Pochard 2
Gadwall 7
Teal 7
Mallard 6
Little egret 1
Water Rail 2
Common Snipe 1
Cetti's warbler 1
MD

Scaup joins the fray

A few diving duck around today which were not here yesterday

Scaup - female Tim Butler pond
Pochard - female TB pond, male Model boat pond
Tufted Duck - 6 MPR, 4 TBP
Gadwall - 7 MBP
Mallard - 4 MBP
Med Gull - adult (not the Czech bird) model boat pond for a short time

Slight increase at Middleton

4 Gadwall and 3 adult plus 1 juvenile mute were additional birds on Middleton Nature Reserve today. Although no sign of the female Pochard.
Mute 7 adult + 5 juvenile
Gadwall 11
Mallard 3
Tufted 6
Pochard 1
Teal 6
Moorhen 6
Little egret 1
Goldcrest 1
MD

The last couple of days

Sorry for lack of postings.   The big news was a female pochard which made a brief visit earlier in the week but for the last two days has accompanied the male on the Middleton model boat pond

Secondly a colour ringed grey wagtail was traced to a juvenile ringed on 23rd Sep 2016 and is the fourth instance of one of our ringed birds remaining to winter in the area

There were 7 gadwall and five tufted duck on the model boat pond today

Thanks to Justine and malcolm for info.

Kittiwake

Jammed in on Kittiwake this late morning - forgot about the IOM ferry and it just happened to be  coming in as I scanned from Ocean Edge

Kittiwake - 1 x 2CY - peeled off and went back out level with old sewer pipe

Middleton model boat pond
Decent number of gulls again with a lot of turnover - anyone with a bit of time and patience has a chance here, with everything that drops in at full frame range

Pochard - drake
Tufted Duck - 4
Gadwall - 5
Mute Swan - 2 + 4
Mallard - 6
Moorhen - 2
Little Egret - 1
Jackdaw - 2

Monday 2nd January - Ringing

Heysham Reserve
A ringing session at the hut feeding area, still limited because of access difficulties, produced the following:
Comprising only 10 new birds along with 21 retraps;
Long-tailed Tit - 6 retraps (including one ringed in 2012 and one in 2013)
Great Tit - 5 retraps
Greenfinch - 2 retraps + 5 new
Goldfinch - 1 retrap + 3 new
Blue Tit - 3 retraps
Robin - 2 retraps + 1 new
Blackbird - 2 retraps
Goldcrest - 1 new

JM