Not even suitable for ducks!

Very heavy overnight rain left fields and roads awash. The rain continued, with some sleet till late afternoon, when it eased for a while. Light NNE breeze.

Middleton Nature Reserve

Just a quick look at the main ponds in passing.

The water level on the "no swimming" pond is 15cm higher than when it was frozen, probably explaining whey there were only 2 Gadwall remaining. The 2 Shoveler were still feeding, but they can feed deeper than the Gadwall.

The only other birds seen on the "no swimming" pond, were 3 Coot.

The 3 adult plus 4 juvenile Mute were back on the Main pond. No other wildfowl seen.

Saltmarsh as tide was covering it

Common Snipe 2 (presumably the newly flooded fields are providing alternative feeding areas)

Jack Snipe 4

Reed Bunting 3

Rock Pipit 1

Half Moon Bay beach and foreshore 

Rock Pipit 1

The beach out from Half Moon Bay has a very shallow gradient for the first 100m. This means that the ebbing tide, particularly these flood tides, very quickly exposes the mud surface, making it ideal for two different feeding techniques.

Godwits 8 - there were both Bar-Tailed accompanied by at least 2 Black-Tailed.

Black-Tailed on left, Bar-Tailed on right

These were after lugworm. The mud they are feeding on is very soft, as there is still lots of water below the surface, making it easier to reach deep into it for worms.

The other birds feeding were Oystercatchers. These were after cockles. Cockles project out of the mud when covered by sea water, then quickly burrow down when exposed by the tide. But not fast enough when they are exposed quickly and the Oystercatcher are waiting.

Watch the middle bird

The Oystercatcher has not just caught the cockle at the start of this clip, this was it's third attempt to open it, but the same soft mud that helps the Godwit, provides little leverage to prise open a cockle. But it must have cracked it that time, as it was quickly opened on, what was it's fourth attempt.

Finally, I don't think this rock sculpture was created by the same artisan that created the intricate stands below the high cliffs (they are still standing by the way - see post 21/12/20), but it had the same effect.

It made me smile, so in my book, that makes it art!
Hints of Mick Jagger? - but not quite craggy enough.

The sound of silence!

Very light east breeze, low cloud all day with the precipitation alternating between rain and drizzle.

The only stuff I have so far is from my stroll around the saltmarsh as the tide was covering it (MD). This is what today's title refers to. 

Before the caravan park first locked down last March there were c40 Starling and 12 House Sparrows "resident" around the saltmarsh. Within a week of the human residents leaving, the Starling and Sparrows were gone too, and only a few returned briefly during the temporary return of guests. They obviously rely on the many feeders to support their diet. 

But, that was fine, there was always a Linnet flock around, but since the regular visits to the area by both a Merlin and a Sparrowhawk, the Linnets are rarely seen, and there were none today.

The recent cold snap brought in a number of passerines, but they were also gone today, I didn't even see the 2 resident Robins.

It was eerily quiet. The sea was flat, so no lapping of waves, the drizzle seemed to deaden any sounds that there were, and the low visibility just added to the overall effect. There were no barking dogs, no distant sirens, the few Wigeon were subdued and even the Common Snipe only made a half heated squark as they took flight. It felt strange indeed. Anyway:

Common Snipe 19

Jack Snipe 1 - I was expecting that the recent cold weather would have encouraged more to feed here.

Reed Bunting 2

There are typically 12 Oystercatcher alternating between the Cricket field and the adjacent football field. The yellow flagged Norwegian bird is still with them. These birds feed here when the tide is both in and out, so earthworms are their food of choice - I wonder if there are others here that have made a similar journey to the flagged bird, the Norwegian ringer has confirmed that his local birds do primarily feed their young on earthworms  (only idle speculation of course MD)

Sorry no photographs today, it wasn't that sort of day.

Nice day and decent coverage

After a relatively mild day yesterday, there was an overnight frost, enough to freeze ground water and the shallower ponds, but the main ponds remained ice free. Sunshine till late afternoon when it started to cloud over. Almost no wind, what little air movement there was mainly north and west.

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Mute swan 2+1 adult 3+1 juvenile - the additional adult is definitely a new bird in, it shied away from the regular feeder.

Coot 4

Moorhen 10

Water Rail 2

Gadwall 26

Shoveler 2 

Mallard 6

Little Grebe 1

Cetti's warbler - good, but brief, views near the new shallow scrapes in the SW corner of the western marsh.

South Shore

Some nice shots from Janet

Little Egret feeding on Red Nab

Grey Seal out from No.1 outflow

Two Herring gull stowaways on the incoming ferry

Heysham Skeer towards low water

Eider 103

Great Crested Grebe 3

Knot c1,500

Pale-bellied Brent goose - they were around the pool in the centre of the skeer, there isn't a great deal of weed in this pool (I checked on the way back when they had gone), so presumably the advantage is that it is underwater and so easier to crop. I counted as best I could from distance, 24, then skirted well past them onto the skeer. 10 minutes later I heard them in flight, there were actually 30, they set off west and I thought they were off to the west side for the night, but they doubled back and landed on the water just west of the skeer.

They then drifted back along the skeer edge and continued feeding from the water

I included this clip, mainly because it gives a good idea of the general activity around, what I regard as, the western edge of the inner skeer.

Finally, I like this short clip, the Eider appears to deliberately upset the gull

Not a lot, just a Little

The west winds strengthened overnight and were quite strong all day, although not gale force. Persistent rain for most of the morning with showers in the afternoon.

All I have is from my wet walk along the south sea wall to watch the lunchtime ferry arrive.

Wigeon 153 sheltering behind No.2 outflow

Some of the wigeon resting plus Black-headed gulls and Redshank shrimping 

It wasn't easy checking the gulls behind the ferry, the wind wasn't too bad, but driving rain made use of optics difficult. Still, I couldn't find anything of note, then just after the ferry entered the harbour an adult Little gull came from the direction of the buoys out from the north wall. It had either overshot or was just coming out of the bay. I followed it as far as the harbour mouth, but lost it when I switched from binoculars to my camera, but I think it must have entered the harbour. 

This Curlew was sheltering just below the sea wall, even though directly in the path of the wind, the sloping wall deflects it upwards, leaving a calm area at the base of the wall.

This Turnstone is feeding on something on No.1 outflow. I can't think what, the tide has just exposed it and you'd imagine that the rough waves would have purged it clean.

A pretty similar tally

No overnight frost, but the larger ponds remain ice covered apart from a few pockets. The wind shifted to the west then to WSW, quite light, but starting to freshen by evening. Forecast to become strong SW by the morning. Light showers for most of the day, becoming more prolonged by late afternoon.

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Mute 2 adult 3+1 juvenile 

Coot 6

Moorhen 8

Little Grebe 1

Gadwall 30

Teal 1

Mallard 2

Water Rail 3

Goldcrest 1

North shore - towards low water

Eider 71

Red-breasted Merganser 3

Knot c1,000

Pale-bellied Brent goose- at least 31 - at 14:00, as yesterday, there were about 31 feeding around one of the central skeer pools (one that then feeds the drain to the skeer corner). They are not easy to see when feeding here as this panorama shows.

By 14:45 they were all gone from the pool, possibly influenced by a motorcycle going through the area! But there were still a group of 6 on the water on the south side of the skeer. There is no way of knowing if they were part of the original 31 or additional.

Well, I doubt there are many places In Lancashire that would regard 31 Brent Goose as a "slow news day", but I've decided to show you the fruits of my "trawling" yesterday anyway (MD).

On yesterday's post I showed the tiny net I'd made (actually I only fabricated the net, I had the frame, no idea from where or when or what for!). I wanted to see just how many and what size the shrimps, that so many birds are feeding on at the moment, are.

I selected a drain that wasn't being used by any birds, I knew this would likely indicate the density would be lower than the ones being used, but I didn't want to disturb feeding birds.

I placed the net so it was touching the bottom of the drain and just covering the net. I estimated this to be the feeding depth for Redshank, indeed this is the same drain where I videoed the Redshank feeding (see post 26/12/20).

I pushed the net quickly up the drain for 1 metre.

At first I though there was nothing, I needed my glasses to see the tiny shrimps, but I had caught at least 30.

This is a detail of two of them, plus a piece of detritus, probably what they were feeding on. Doubled up like this they were about 8mm, so would be 15-16mm when flat on the mud (not including antennae). This is a very early, probably the first adult stage, they spend the first year of their life as zooplankton, then up to a year in increasing size stages of adult form, shedding their exoskeleton at each stage. It will be September before these will be the size that you are used to seeing them in fishmongers.

Small as they are, they contain a lot of nutrients, the body muscle alone is 33% of the overall weight. And there are a lot of them, there needs to be, they are the staple diet of a large proportion of the area's Black-Headed gulls at this time of year, and this year there seems to be a glut and the waders are feeding on them too.

Reasonable, albeit patchy coverage

Another overnight frost with some light snow, by morning the wind had shifted to the south and with the sunshine made it feel quite pleasant (easily said when you're well wrapped up!).

Red Nab just after the tide had left it:

Wigeon 160

Shelduck 85

Rock Pipit 1

Saltmarsh 

Lots of passerines displaced from inland:

Robin 7 

Dunnock 4 

Wren 4

Reed Bunting 1

Song Thrush 4

Blackbird 2

All seemed to be finding food easily enough.

The usual large flock of Lapwing was not present, but there were a few scattered around in ones and twos

When they are close in like this, with the sun on their back,
I prefer one of their many other names - Green Plover.

North shore towards low water

Pale-bellied Brent goose 42 - at 13:00 there were 37 around one of the pools in the middle of Heysham skeer plus another group of 5 were further inshore. By 14:00 the 37 were nowhere to be seen but 5 were on the water along the southern edge of the skeer.

Eider c50

Red-breasted Merganser 5

Goldeneye 1 distant female type

Knot c1,000

Mediterranean gull 1 adult on the lamppost again - see post 4/01/21

Middleton Nature Reserve (JP)

Mute 2 adult 4 juvenile 

Coot 4

Moorhen 4

Mallard 4

Gadwall 16

The "no swimming" pond viewed from the eastern bank

This Robin was used to people throwing food.

The Pinkfoot have been feeding in large numbers in the fields next to Heysham Moss. They left early this evening and Janet took this shot from Meldon Road.

Although this picture was taken just east of the recording area, the lead birds of this flock would have already crossed over the eastern boundary.

As ever, with Janet's pictures, it's best to "open" them to see the full detail.

Finally, this is the post equivalent of a trailer, I made myself a tiny net. The next slow news day, I'll show you what I caught with it today. 

Regular post readers should be able to guess.

Iceland gull breaks two year duck - just.

Pretty much everything, except sunshine, in today's weather. It started out frosty in the night, but had turned to rain by morning, which eased to light showers later. Temperatures hovered around zero leaving some very slippy black ice. Later in the afternoon there were a couple of snow showers. The wind continues from NNE.

Pete had to be in the area this morning, so took the opportunity for a spot of, as it turned out, timely sea watching:

Iceland Gull. 1 juvenile out from harbour mouth, very distant to the west of the Kent channel. It was a small very attenuated juvenile with lightweight flight - no chance of confusion with Glaucous gull despite the range. Initially, probably just over Lancashire waters, but soon well into Cumbria.

This is the first Iceland Gull record for the recording area since 25/05/18.

The Iceland Gull was directly in line with this feature 

 - the  Rampside Light Tower

Mediterranean gull -  1 adult attending feeding concentration along A589 north of Oxcliffe lights but didn’t land on roadside lamp post this time. Technically just out of the actual recording area, but an area of easy access for any local readers.

Pale-bellied Brent goose 31/32 feeding in the skeer corner 11:20

Middleton Nature Reserve 

No swimming pond

Mute 2 adult 3 + 1 juvenile 

Coot 4

Moorhen 2

Little Grebe 1

Gadwall 27

Mallard 6

Grey Heron 1

This Heron was at the open water's edge. Not quite as hopeless a strategy as it looks. The amount of food that is thrown in here acts an effective ground bait, attracting any omnivorous fish in the pond. Unfortunately for the Heron, as far as I know, there are only Perch in this pond which are primarily carnivore, but perhaps there are Roach or Rudd in this pond as well.

A couple each, Mallard and Gadwall with the Heron

I'm not sure if this young Black-Headed gull is soiled or oiled. The number of oiled birds in and around the bay have reduced significantly over the last 20 years. Hopefully this is just some grime from one of the trampled puddles on the reserve.

Brent numbers higher as tides get lower

Another heavy overnight frost with mist till mid morning. Some sunshine later in the morning with light rain in the afternoon.

Just a quick check of the skeer corner at 10:30 located 34 Pale-bellied Brent geese feeding, including the two colour ringed Canadian birds.

This shot shows the inner skeer in the background and the geese feeding on the weed in the middle. In the foreground you can see the drain water continuing down to the sea. This is draining sea water from the inner skeer, but also includes fresh water which seeps onto the shore where it meets the clay boundary. This makes this drain brackish, which the gut weed favours. There are similar outlets of surface water out from the children's play area (focused on the low lying horse field behind), Half Moon Bay and Red Nab. All have growths of gut weed and all have been regularly used as feeding areas by Brent geese.

This clip shows the drain and associated weed a bit more clearly.

I didn't go on the skeer today, looking out from the shore located:

Eider c60

Red-breasted Merganser 2

I left the Brent feeding, but, as yesterday at 10:50 the bulk of them (30) stopped feeding and flew to the water. There was nothing obvious around to have spooked them.

The tides start to get higher again, after tomorrow.

On the way home I just had a quick look at the "no swimming" pond at Middleton.

The multitude of swans, ducks etc are maintaining the open area of free water. Two bits of good news:

The Gadwall seem to becoming more tolerant of the swan feeders, particularly when they feed from high on the east bank, as was happening on this visit.

At least one of the Little grebe is still around.

This clip shows the Little grebe and some of the Gadwall, but it's mainly so you can hear the commotion made by the gulls and Carrion Crow as they strive for a share of the bread being fed.

Mute swan 2 adult 3+1 juvenile 

Moorhen 2

Coot 4

Mallard 4

Gadwall 16

Little Grebe 1

Wrong......again!

Another overnight ground frost, light north wind and mainly sunny.

Unfortunately, but understandably, increased movement restrictions will result in fewer walks by me and less opportunities of records from others. I will maintain this blog as best I can, any observations from anyone exercising in the recording area are welcome. My e-mail address is on the side bar to the right. 

Malcolm

So far, just my records from a morning stroll on Heysham skeer.

Pale-bellied Brent goose 27 - this is what today's title refers to, yesterday I said that they were opting to feed on the water rather than coming ashore. Today, I went down earlier in the tide, at 09:30 there were 27 feeding well in from the water's edge along the brackish drain where the weed grows. I managed to squeeze 25 onto this frame, they include two Red Blue ringed birds, almost certainly the regular Canadian pair.

When I was leaving the skeer at 10:30, I thought they had all gone, but checking along the skeer edge found two groups of 9 and 5 close in, but on the water. I don't know if the others were still around or moved on. This is the point in the tide, where I started yesterday, so presumably they fill their bellies with weed then float a while to digest it, but can't resist an odd buffet snack.

Peregrine 1

Knot c2,500

Eider c70

Red-breasted Merganser 4

Goldeneye 1 male

It was regularly feeding, I caught a dive on this clip, but suspect it was more an escape response to the passing gull. Note the two Merganser behind

Warmer.....well, not as cold.

It barely got down to 0C last night, a couple of light snow flurries this morning with periods of sunshine. The light winds continue from the north.

Heysham skeer - low water 09:00

Eider c60 

Red-breasted Merganser 2

Knot c1,000

Pale-bellied Brent 11 - they are feeding differently in the skeer corner to last winter. Then, they would make their way up the beach until they got to the feeding area, then fed until displaced by the tide. At the moment, they are not attempting to come ashore and prefer feeding when the tide is over the weed beds.

This morning there was a small group of 9 drifting slowly in. Two more flew in to join them. They slowly made their way to the corner and started up ending to feed.

Perhaps it's because the weed strands are longer so far this year. Feeding this way makes the Brent easier to see and count, but it's not currently possible to check for rings.

Middleton Nature Reserve 

The Mute, Mallard, Coot and Gulls remain on the open water on the "no swimming" pond.

The open water area continues to increase

Meanwhile the remaining 13 Gadwall wait on the ice.

This Great Tit seemed convinced that Spring has sprung