Better than expected, but not by much!

Still quite a strong SSW wind, a few light showers but mainly dry.

Today was one of those days, when you feel you could walk around all day and see nothing. Then I realised, that is nonsense! There is lots to see, perhaps not rare or unusual, but I don't go for a daily walk to find the unusual, I go because I enjoy all nature (MD)

Ben my Chree followers at midday

Kittiwake - 2 adult

Med Gull - ad seemed to appear from within harbour (Fishers roof?)

Just my stuff from the south shore so far, mid morning towards high water.

Rock Pipit 3

Linnet 22

Ringed Plover 18

Dunlin 2

These are some of the plover plus the 2 Dunlin

I was wondering why the small waders were so mobile today. Then a female type Merlin provided the answer when it whooshed past me. It was actually below me along the foreshore, so I only saw its back, and much to quick to get a picture.

Jack Snipe 1 - strangely no Common Snipe, perhaps the Merlin had already flushed them.

Wigeon c150

They were well spread, but driven close in by the wind. A good proportion of them are on this video. Unfortunately, the wind drowned out most of their calls.

Spot the Mallard

Eventually, it was time to head toward the estuary. 

One of the lead birds here, kindly left a deposit towards a future visit.

Just bits so far

Strong west to SW wind a few bright spells in the morning, but largely overcast with a few showers in the afternoon.

Some interesting detail from one of yesterday's Knot

84N	Ringed	Skogranes, SW ICELAND 64 46N 22 36W	24/05/2017	1st summer
791996	Seen	Skogranes, SW ICELAND 64 46N 22 36W	17 & 20/5/18
	Seen	Heysham old Heliport	02/02/2019
	Seen	Heysham old Heliport	03/02/2019
	Seen	Heysham old Heliport	11/01/2020
	Seen	Heysham old Heliport	26/01/2020
	Seen	Heysham old Heliport	07/02/2020
	Seen	Heysham old Heliport	08/02/2020
	Seen	Heysham old Heliport	09/02/2020
	Seen	Heysham old Heliport	11/02/2020
	Seen	Ainsdale, Merseyside	13/02/2020
	Seen	Snettisham, Norfolk	27/07/2020
	Photo	Heysham old Heliport	15/11/2020

South shore - mid morning

Rock pipits 2 on Red Nab 1 near the waterfall 

Linnet 25

Several Common Snipe plus at least 1 Jack Snipe

Wigeon 100+

These Red-breasted Merganser were waiting for the tide on Red Nab

I hadn't realised just how large their feet are

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Just a quick check of the "no swimming" pond

Gadwall 34

Mallard 2

Little Grebe 2

Coot 4

Plus the solitary, aggressive, male adult Mute swan

Eleven ringed Knot read!

The wind shifted back to SW and strengthened significantly. Some very heavy showers, some of hail.

Kittiwake 1 adult offshore

Mediterranean gull - 2 adult followed the ferry into the harbour. Later 1 was on No.2 outflow, but only for the duration of a particularly heavy squall.

Med seeing out a squall on the outflow

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Gadwall 32

Mallard 2

Shoveller 1

Little Grebe 2

Richard Du Feu and Howard Stockdale managed to read 11 ringed Knot roosting in the heliport area.

Howard managed top quality images of 10 of them. The selection below shows the various ringing schemes, plus some preliminary history from Richard. Many thanks to Howard for these images:

N3GYNN - this bird is also fitted with a transmitter 

KX - last seen on the Wash in August.

CHL - Ringed 18/10/2020 at Terrington St Clement, 

SR19202 as a moulting adult.

Unfortunately the image resolution of the blog isn't sufficient to do these images justice. You really should "open" them to see the superb details.

Another quiet day

The wind was back to SE more due south later. Mainly overcast and showers, but occasional sun.

Only my stuff so far (MD)

South shore

Wigeon c100

Linnet 24

Common Snipe 13

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Gadwall 9

Teal 3

Little grebe 2

Shoveller 1 male

This male Shoveller is either coming out of eclipse very quickly,
 or it's a different bird.

By popular demand (actually 3 polite requests)

Here are the directions to locate the Heysham Labyrinth:

The labyrinth is a maze like engraving on the Heysham Head sandstone. It's about the same size as a dinner plate. It's almost identical in size and style to one in Tintagel Cornwall, which is either Bronze or Iron age. For more information check on line.

It's on a horizontal ledge in the middle of Heysham Head cliffs. This picture shows the general location.

This is relatively easy access and is not cut off by tides.

Note the rock fall to the right of the arrow.

This is the area looking in the direction of the arrow

Note the distinctive graffiti on the cliff wall

This is looking down onto the ledge. The "T" at the bottom of the picture is easily found (it's the start of TDRI). But at about 8 o' clock inside the yellow circle there is a more difficult TH or TM. This cuts into the labyrinth. The yellow circle actually describes what's left of the labyrinth.

Impossible to see anything from this angle.

Janet checked it out today and in a period of brief sunshine, and a low angle took this, really very good, shot

In the absence of a low sun, try a low angle shot taken with a flash.

Speculation about this engraving ranges from bronze age to 20th century. In my opinion, the amount of deterioration over the last 25 years,  I can't believe it to be more than a few hundred years old. But I have been known to be wrong. Either way, it is part of Heysham's heritage that won't  be around for ever.

A bit more variety

Winds still largely SW. Plenty of sunny spells but also some heavy showers

South shore

Wigeon c170

Mallard 2

Common Snipe 6

Jack Snipe 4

Linnet 25

Rock Pipit 2 - This shot of a Rock Pipit shows how "real" colours can be affected by strong sunlight.

The sun is directly behind and is shining through the left leg, making it look orange. The right leg is largely in the shade and the true colour.

Dunnock rarely get a mention, but this is a nice shot in full sun.

Even such an apparently "plain" bird can be confusing in different lighting conditions. I have confused them with all sorts over the years! (MD)

Kittiwake 2 adult offshore, presumably followed the StenaLine in

Howard managed to read some Knot rings in the heliport area - details awaited

Middleton Nature Reserve- mid morning

Gadwall 8

Little grebe 2

Miserable as it is, as the days shorten, one plus is that the increasing sparse foliage does allow a better view of small stuff flitting through the trees.

A mixed tit feeding flock went through as well as the tits there were:

Blackcap 1 male

Chiffchaff 1

Great Spotted Woodpecker 1 arrived and left with the flock, not sure if it was actually in association or just coincidence.

I quite like these, slightly unusual shots - both these, plus several others were ringed.

Blue Tit

Long Tailed Tit

Kevin took this shot to highlight the size and shape difference between a Herring gull and a Great Black-Backed gull.

They remind me of a couple of bouncers outside a dodgy club!

An everyday story of ordinary stuff.....

The wind was back in the prevailing SW. mainly dry, but the showers were heavy.

Just my stuff so far, possibly more to come (MD)

No sign of the Brent today, checked at either side of high water and low water.

Red Nab area - high water

Rock Pipit 2

Knot c500

Redshank c120

Some of the Redshank

Plenty of Wigeon, but scattered around

Children's play area out from Knowlys Rd - both sides of high water.

Dunlin 10

Turnstone c20

Ringed Plover 40+

There are 29 Ringed Plover on this frame

Black-headed gull

This bird was ringed near Hamburg 22/03/13. It has over wintered at Heysham for the last two years, unfortunately there have been no sightings elsewhere.

Heysham Skeer - low water

Knot c1500

Occasionally spooked by a Peregrine falcon 

Great Crested Grebe 3

Eider 3

Things don't get much more "ordinary" than this - it is the gut weed in the corner of the skeer, that the Canadian ringed Brent were feeding on yesterday

It's lusher than what's on offer by the end of the winter, 

but it hardly looks worth crossing the bay for,

 let alone the North Atlantic!

Brent are back

Mainly overcast with light showers. The wind was more to the south and much colder.

South shore - mid morning 

Rock Pipits 2

Ringed Plover 2

Shelduck c50

Wigeon 206 (sat on the beach and in shallow channels as the tide ebbed, made for easy counting)

Some of the Wigeon resting on beach.

Report from Dan:

Heysham Head

Goldcrest 1

Song Thrush 1

Smithy Wood / Smithy Scrub

Goldcrest 5

Blackcap 1 (male, ringed)

Heysham NR

Goldcrest 4

Chiffchaff 1

Moneyclose Lane / Dog Track

Blackcap 1 (male, ringed)

Goldcrest 8

Bullfinch 8

One of the Bullfinch

Ocean Edge

Linnet 17

Heysham skeer - low water 14:30

Pale-bellied Brent goose - 5 in the SE corner of the skeer. The children's play area, out from Knowlys road, might be worth checking at high water in the morning.

Two of these are ringed. The one second from the left is a returning bird VDRB, ringed as an adult on Axel Heiberg island, Canada 2/08/14. This is its third successive winter visit to Heysham. The bird 2nd from the right also has Red, Blue rings and is definitely "V". This is almost certainly the long term companion of VDRB, unfortunately it never left the water. Hopefully there will be more opportunities to confirm.

In the previous two winters they were accompanied by 2 and 4 juveniles respectively. All the birds looked to be adult today, but perhaps I was too far away for plumage details.

Red-breasted Merganser 2

Great Crested grebe 1

Eider 3

Nothing "new" to report

The light winds still largely from the east and south. Mainly overcast with light showers

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Ringing from Alan

Nets set from 07.00 to 10.30 but just three birds caught - a Blackbird, Robin and retrap Cetti's Warbler! (One sining later on)

One of the drawbacks when using mist nets is that wandering round the rest of the reserve is not possible so it's hard to know what was around elsewhere.  Only a handful of blackbirds and thrushes were seen.

The usual large flocks of Pink footed Geese flew north to their feeding areas.

Gadwall 4

Shoveller 1

Little Grebe 2

Low water channels

Red-breasted Merganser 5

Great Crested grebe 1

Little Egret 3

Pink-Footed goose 20 north 12:45. c50 south 17:00.

Old, really old, news (MD):

After my recent post regarding the lost medieval trees on the skeer, John Dent reminded me of the other lost trees on the foreshore. These emerge then erode from the rocks below Heysham Head.

I took this shot in October 2018. 

The piece is about 0.5m long, but the previous year it was at least 1m and 20 years ago it was still in the strata and at least 1.5m long.

It's not strictly a fossil, but the external mould, of what I have always thought of as a "Tree Fern", but John has been advised that it is a lepidodendron which is related to  club mosses. I have looked this up and it definitely fits the bill. I knew the rocks were Carboniferous, but this species narrows the date range to 300 to 350 million years ago.

I love standing on this strata, each layer is the mud surface exactly as it was 300 million years ago, in exactly the same location. But not a muddy beach then, presumably a lake bottom. And, same location is only relative, tectonic movement means that we would have been on a completely different part of the globe.

After John reminded me, I went to have another look at the "fossil", but couldn't find it.  John managed to relocate it and took this shot.

It is even smaller and more eroded now. Because it is lighter it is more susceptible to storm damage, and I doubt it will last many more years. Of course others may emerge in time, but they're not in a rush!

John highlighted the current location on this picture.
These are the cliffs just south of Heysham Head

If you decide to take a look, there are two things you must consider.

1. The tide can cut you off here - make sure you know that the tide is going out.
2. This is a dynamic environment and rocks do fall down - don't go down after heavy rain or after  a recent storm.

Perhaps, on another quiet day, I'll show you how to find the "Heysham Labyrinth" (google it). You'll be totally underwhelmed if you actually see it!

Vagrant Emperor!

The light east winds continue, mainly overcast, with a few showers and a few short periods of sunshine.

Vagrant Emperor 1 female (MD) - Last year we had two putative sightings, today Kevin Eaves nailed this one.

13:35 It was resting on the Power Station perimeter wall just before No.2 outflow.

These excellent pictures from Kevin.

Fortunately I was already planning on walking down the wall, and was just setting off when Kevin put the news out. It was still there when I arrived, but the sun had come out and it was getting warmer. This picture shows the location.

It is always worth checking along this wall for insects. I always do, but would undoubtedly have missed this one, as I would have been focused on the outflow birds.

I took over vigil from Kevin. Walkers along the wall were very obliging and maintained a good distance,  but it was obvious that the Emperor was getting restless. After returning from a check further up the wall it was gone (14:50). Unfortunately, just five minutes before the next hopeful observer turned up! 

Other stuff - not much

Heysham skeer - low water 11:40

This Shoveller was in the south corner of the skeer

The video I posted the other day seemed to work on some devices every time, but not always on every device. What I like about a video is that you get the background soundtrack, but in future, I'll post a still as well - here we go.

This Little Egret has just caught a small whitbait.
It all looks serene.

This is the next fish it caught, not so serene! Hope you can see the video.

A dull day

Still gentle easterlies, low cloud all day, often accompanied by light rain, meant that it never really seemed to get light.

Just my stuff so far, hopefully more to come (MD)

Middleton Nature Reserve - mid morning

Mute 2+1+1 adult 3+1 juvenile 

Coot 6

Moorhen 9

Gadwall 12

Shoveller 1 male

Little Grebe 2

Water Rail 3

Cetti's warbler 2 singing

Chiffchaff 1 calling

Still plenty of Blackbirds feeding but only 3 Redwing seen.

At 10:45 three swan flew low and straight, from the north over the west side of the reserve, to the south. I was expecting them to be Whooper, but they turned out to be 1 adult plus 2 juvenile Mute swans, definitely not any of the resident birds.

Then, just two minutes later 4 more swans followed exactly the same line and height, but this time they were Whooper swans.

It was just after the tide had turned, possibly a factor or just coincidence.

Whooper swans

Heysham Nature Reserve - mid afternoon 

Eventually located a mixed tit feeding flock, with at least one warbler in tow - probably a Chiffchaff.

"Goldcrest" heard a couple of times/locations. I say Goldcrest, but didn't manage to see any to confirm species.