A Little trickle

Provisional update. There might be more than a trickle when other records come in (MD).
The strong southerlies continue, and will for most of the coming week.

There has been no reports of any Brent geese since thE rough weather started last week.

Little gulls - 1 adult on No.2 outflow 15:10. 1 adult with a 1st winter originally in harbour then out 15:30.

Hopefully more later.

The lull, after the storm

Just a few bits so far today.
Low water channels Heysham skeer
Great Crested Grebe 2
Red-Breasted Merganser 10
Eider 8

Little gull 1 adult behind IoM ferry

Stonechat 1 1st W male Ocean Edge salt marsh

Rock pipits 2 around Red Nab

Shag, probably 2cy, on wooden jetty at high water (ref GP and LP)

Hopefully more later

Everything moving back

The gale force westerlies over the last few days eased to "strong winds" this morning and continued to subside throughout the day.
Little gulls
A 1st winter waif was hanging around with the BHG near the wooden jetty at low water.

Reports from the stone jetty indicate that there were between 25 to 30 flying out over the tide.
Three hung around the outflows for a while.

These excellent pictures from Kevin Eaves.

Kittiwake 1 resting on water out from the salt marsh at high water.

The Linnets and Reed buntings also returned to Ocean Edge salt marsh.
Rock pipits 1 near lighthouse plus 3 feeding on the new storm generated flotsam in the corner of salt marsh.

This one, at least, appears to be feeding on a seed, but probably a small pupae.

Stonechat 1 on salt marsh

Tuesady - Little gulls close in

The Little gulls had been driven inshore today. By 10:30 they were making their way out past the south wall lighthouse along the wall towards Ocean Edge.

An absolute minimum of 8 including 1 x 1st winter and 1 x 2nd winter.

They were trying to feed just under the wall. This picture shows position and the conditions, there are two Litle gulls  in this frame, centre just out from the wall.

Later 4 birds, including the 1st winter, were resting on the grass area on Ocean Edge, until the sea spray became too intensive and drove them off.

This picture is not "soft focus" the blurriness is the result of looking through a horizontal salt water shower!

Rock pipits. 1 near waterfall and 1 on saltmarsh.

Westerly and woolly

The wind was further round to the west today but seawatching was limited to three multiple records in about 1.5hrs late am

Little gull - loose aggregation of 6 ads gradually being blown in
Kittiwake - flock of c11 wheeling in v quickly
Pintail - flock of 17-18 out

No inshore gulls of interest eg no Med at Knowlys road field despite big roost in field

Middleton Nature Reserve 
Just a quick check of main ponds
Coot 4
Gadwall 10
Teal 2
Little grebe 2 (together and turning to sp)
Jack snipe 1
Stock dove 2
Raven 2

Wind not delivering - yet

Just 5 ad kitt in 25 min seawatching 

Knot ringed on Sefton coast autumn 2017 - first sighting here

Rock pipit 2 Red Nab

Middleton Nature Reserve
Coot now 4
Gadwall 25
Tufted 2 male

More Knot on the Near Naze

A small proportion of the Knot went on to the Near Naze today on the incoming tide and a few colour combinations (7) were read, but it was hopeless once they decided to settle and roost with three birds being in full view for ages standing on the wrong one leg!   This one is a bit of a mystery but I'm sure the international team will have it sorted soon!

Brent Goose - two pale-bellied on Red Nab outer section at 1130hrs

Rock pipit 1 near Lighthouse

Buzzard 1 on fence in field west of recycling centre

Merlin works wonders, and.......good news!

Rock Pipit with sea slater at harbour mouth - thanks Kevin

Merlin 1 male - spooking the knot this am leading to a chunk landing on Near Naze with one Dutch flags, one Formby Pt flag and two Icelandic flags read


Heysham skeer low water 16:00
Pale-bellied Brent goose - 65 originally feeding in the bay just east of conger rock (this bay is just to the left of C ref 3/2/20 post). They later moved to the drain fed pool on skeer (D).
Eider c20
And the good news......
Shag 1 resting on rock on south side, before flying off south.

Not much of a picture, but good to see the recent diesel spill didn't drive it away from the area (or worse). Presuming, of course, that it is the same long staying bird.

Brent scraping the bottom of gut weed barrel!

Sub title - Seafront Views

Pale and Dark-bellied Brent geese. (MD)

The Brent seem to have exhausted the gut weed easily available on these neap tides. i.e. Doesn't rise high enough to reach the weed near the sea walls or go out far enough to access the main supply in the corner of skeer.

A total of 83 Pale-bellied and 1 Dark-bellied were located today in two visits.

10:30 there were at least 20 feeding amongst the rocks between positions A and B (see post 3/2/20). These were quickly joined by two groups of 6 and 5 flying in from west.

They circle around before landing.

A second check at 15:00 (actually a fruitless check for the "missing" Shag) found 45pb trying to get into the corner of skeer (position C).

Unfortunately, the combination of landing a dinghy and a dog walker eventually proved too much.

They flew to the drain fed pool on skeer (position D). But they didnt feed in pool, instead they scraped for the meagre pickings around the pool. This gave me a chance to inspect 90 legs. Not one ring. They remained in this area after I left, and must have been getting enough food as they didn't return to corner even when they were left alone.

I then noticed that there were more geese in front of the children's play area (position A). But they were not feeding. Then, presumably after a reasonably undisturbed interval they scurried further inshore and started feeding.

The children's play area can be seen in the background.

All the birds seen were Pale-bellied, with the exception of this juvenile Dark-bellied

The inevitable dog walker eventually flushed them, revealing a total of 39

They flew to the corner (position C) where they were still feeding when I left, as were the birds on the skeer.

Pink-Footed goose c100 north 11:00

Tuesday:
A circumnavigation of the Power Stations perimeter, in the vain hope of locating the elusive (gone?) Black Redstart, managed only a single Rock pipit.

Brent movement on neap tides

Pale-bellied Brent (MD) Low water 12:00. High water 17:50. Tide height 7.2m.
11:00 There were c50 feeding amongst the rocks (position B on picture below) and just 3 on shallow water in corner of skeer (position C).
A walk on to skeer revealed that none were feeding in the previously favoured pool (just above and left of D), so I inspected it. There was little in the way of food remaining, just a few patches of closely cropped gut weed. It looks as if this pool was favoured for it's remoteness and has been stripped of available weed.
11:30 now 44 birds feeding in shallow corner (C) and none remaining on rocks (B).
A further 14 were feeding in the drain fed pool (top right of D). This pool is regularly brackish when it has been raining, this seems to be favoured by gut weed.
So a total of 58 - these should be showing well in front of play area (A) from 15:00 onwards today.

This picture was taken from the high point on path from Knowlsy Rd to the Childrens play ares.

A quick check at 15:45. The tide had reached point A and the geese were strung out in small groups from B to A, I didn't try to count them but certainly c50. 

On these neap tides, high water alone is not enough to flush them from this general area. Similar movement patterns should be repeated for the next two days, and possibly Thursday. By weekend, we are back to spring tides which are high enough to flush them from here, and hopefully on to Red Nab.