Another guest appearance

Goosander - Not as interesting as yesterday's grebe, but a redhead on water to north of Heysham skeer at low water - this species is barely annual here.

Shag 1 adult resting briefly near conger rock on skeer, before a short feeding session then disappearing

Also around skeer
Great-Crested grebe 6
Red-Breasted merganser 3
Yesterday's grebe had not turned up by 12:30.

Hopefully more later

Black necked Grebe

This really is the winter of the unreliable and elusive at Heysham, probably due to complex circuits including extensive private or difficult to access terrain.  Notably ‘the’ Black Redstart.  Early winter, a Black necked Grebe was staled out on the Lune Estuary, then a gap before a single date multiple observation a bit further down the coast.  This morning in the incoming tide a reliable and experienced  observer was watching as  it or another flew into the slacker and shallow inshore water off Heysham Head, being dwarfed by nearby RBMs and GCGs.  It then fed intensively until lost from sight after 30 mins of spending the majority of time under water.

Worth checking equivalent stage of tide tomorrow?

Eider - 12
Single figures of RBM and GCG

Med gull - ad by play area

Salt marsh
Jack snipe 1
Common snipe 12
Rock pipit 1

Jack Snipe surprise

Scoped from Knowleys Rd by Pete Woodruff
Mediterranean gull - 1 initially on shore then settled on horse field inshore of play area.
Pale-bellied Brent goose - 6 out from the children's play area on flooding tide.

Ocean Edge salt marsh 30 minutes before high water
There were no snipe at all at this time of the tide yesterday. Today:
Common snipe 8
Jack snipe 3 - think this is highest count this winter
Reed Bunting 5
Rock pipit 1
Ringed Plover 17

Middleton Natyre Reserve late afternoon
Mute 5 adult 3 juvenile
Coot 1
Moorhen 12
Gadwall 32
Tufted 1 male
Teal 4
Mallard 4
Little grebe - 2 feeding together on the "no swimming" pond. First record of more than one bird this winter.

Brentless today, but BRS compensates

No Brent geese got as far as Red Nab today. It seems hit and miss, at the moment, when they decide to cross over from the west side of bay

Black Redstart - 12:00 Red Nab was almost covered when it flew west to east over the remaining rocks and headed down Ocean Edge foreshore loosing height, suggesting it was going to land. A walk back along foreshore did manage to relocate it about half way along. Good views for about half a minute, but pouring rain meant my (MD) camera was stashed away, by the time I got it out it had dissapeared behind a rock and presumably flew back towards the Power Station as it couldn't be found again. Frustrating!
Rock pipit 2
Grey seal - one feeding in No.2 outflow

Unfortunately car problems left Pete stranded at home, so unable to check the Knot flock again. Even more frustrating!

Heysham welcomes back Canadian visitors

Pale-bellied Brent geese - they started arriving from west into the SE corner of Heysham skeer at 08:50.
First these 10

By 09:10 they had been joined by 12 more

And by 09:55, 26 were moving in with the tide towards rocks in front of children's play area.

By 11:10, all 26 had moved to Red Nab - these 24 together on water, plus 2 feeding separately on rocks.

These eventually started feeding on margins revealing two of them to be the Canadian ringed birds seen here last spring.

Ringed birds not on this picture

This is one of them

Also on skeer
Great-Crested Grebe 8
Red-Breasted Merganser 1
Plus lots of Knot!
Ad Med and German-ringed BHG inshore by play area

Also on Red Nab
Red-Breasted Merganser 3
Plus lots of Wigeon

Some of the Knot from the heliport seawall last few days read by Richard and myself.  In addition some Dutch-ringed ones still to come:

CU	Ad	21/05/2019	Marnes, Porsanger , NORWAY  70 24N 25 32E
	Seen	03/09/2019	De Richel, Terschelling, NETHERLANDS  53 14N  5 8E
	Seen	11/01/2020	Heysham old heliport
84N	2CY	24/05/2017	Skogranes, ICELAND 64 46N 22 36W
	Seen	17/5-20/5/18	Skogranes, ICELAND 64 46N 22 36W
	Seen	2/2-3/2/19	Heysham old heliport
	Seen	11/01/2020	Heysham old heliport
12N	2CY	22/05/2017	Straumfjorder, ICELAND 64 29N 22 13W
	Seen	30/8-15/10/17	Griend. NETHERLANDS 53 16N 5 15E
	Seen	2/8-16/10/18	Griend. NETHERLANDS 53 16N 5 15E (& De Richel 12/10)
	Seen	15/9-24/9/19	Griend. NETHERLANDS 53 16N 5 15E
	Seen	13/01/2020	Heysham old heliport
77K	2CY	22/05/2017	Straumfjorder, ICELAND 64 29N 22 13W
	Seen	27/7-31/7/18	Formby Point, Merseyside
	Seen	01/08/2019	Ainsdale, Merseyside
	Seen	13/01/2020	Heysham old heliport
3P	Ad	22/09/2017	Altcar, Merseyside
	Seen	29/9-3/10/17	Caldy Wildfowl, Merseyside
	Seen	11/01/2020	Heysham old heliport
KX	Ad	22/09/2017	Altcar, Merseyside
	Seen	14/04/2018	Southport, Merseyside
	Seen	25/03/2019	Heysham old heliport
	Seen	13/01/2020	Heysham old heliport
XY	Ad	30/03/2018	Altcar, Merseyside
	Seen	11/01/2020	Heysham old heliport
CLE	2CY	30/03/2018	Altcar, Merseyside
	Seen	01/05/2018	Southport, Merseyside
	Seen	24/6-9/7/18	Dundalk, IRELAND
	Seen	04/09/2018	Crosby, Merseyside
	Seen	11/01/2020	Heysham old heliport
K1	Ad	22/09/2017	Altcar, Merseyside
	Seen	11/08/2018	Seaforth, Merseyside
	Seen	08/10/2018	Altcar, Merseyside
	Seen	2/2-9/4/19	Heysham old heliport
	Seen	21/07/2019	Crosby, Merseyside
	Seen	31/12/2019	Thurstaston, Merseyside
	Seen	12-13/1/20	Heysham old heliport

Note the classic moult on the Waddenssee before moving NW to winter with 12N.  Also change
of wintering location with K1 in 2019/20

11 & 12 Jan

Sunday 12 Jan 2020

Ocean Edge saltmarsh
Snipe - 32
Jack Snipe - 1
Reed Bunting - 4 overwintering
Rock Pipit - 1

Behind the ferry
Kittiwake - 35
Mediterranean Gull - 2 adults

Thanks Kevin

Knowlys Road field 
Early am
Mediterranean Gull - 1 adult

***************************************************

Saturday 11 Jan 2020
SW F4, 4-7C, rain in morning, cloud and sun pm

Heliport sea wall
Knot 12000. 6 leg flags read - 3 Icelandic/Dutch and 3 ringed at Formby
Peregrine - 1 targeting the Knot. Displaced everything.
Kittiwake - 57 seen from heliport. Flew into Bay

Just bits and pieces - so far

No sign of any Brent today, checked south shore on rising tide and north side towards low water.

Rock pipits - these seemed omnipresent along south sloping wall and near the lighthouse. Maximum seen at one time was 3. These could possibly have accounted for all the sightings.
Reed Bunting 5 together on salt marsh.

Middleton Nature Reserve 
Gadwall 34
Tufted 2
Teal 4
Mallard 7
Coot 1
Little grebe 1

Hopefully more later

Brent again

Pale-bellied Brent - minimum 13
14:00 at least 5 amongst the rocks in front of the children's play area, just north of Knowlys road.
14:15 to 16:00 13 in the SE corner of Heysham skeer, alternating between feeding on the shallow water and wading ashore to feed in various drains and pools.

At this stage, the water in the corner was shallow enough for them to reach the gut weed below.

Feeding in a drain. This picture is taken from skeer, the pale brown wall is the children's play area. The rocks in the middle distance are where the inshore birds feed.

No sign of the Shag this afternoon, presumably it had already fed.

Middleton Nature Reserve
Gadwall 32
Teal 4
Goldcrest 1

Brent - hopefully a welcome return

Inshore Skeer from Knowleys Road
Mediterranean Gull 1 adult
Pale- Bellied Brent Goose 17 - this is the first known sighting this winter of the Brent feeding where they did regularly during the last two winters.

Red-Throated Diver 1 - seen flying out while waiting for arrival of IOM ferry

Shag still feeding, plus more signs of "spring"

Shag  1 - feeding near the green marker post NW of Heysham Head

Lesser celandine.  In flower on Trumacar school banking

Rock pipit 2 together near No.1 outflow
Great-Crested grebe 2 juvenile feeding out from harbour mouth