Plenty of displaced Teal

A freezing night with a sunny morning, abruptly turning into a, fortunately short lived, blizzard after lunch. More snow and hail/rain showers in the afternoon. Very light variable breeze till mid afternoon when it strengthened from the NW.

Middleton Nature Reserve (MD/JP)

The main pond was iced over again, apart from a hole maintained by the Mute Swan family and Mallard. 

Plenty of Black-headed gulls on the ice but none ringed.

Janet checked later in the morning than I did, by that time the swans had
Broken a path from their hole to the feeding area

This is another area where visitors regularly leave food, not just for the wildfowl but the smaller birds too.

If you open this shot of Janet's, you can easily read the characters of this
Great Tit's ring - unfortunately, not enough of them to be able to identify it

The water level on the "no swimming" pond is dropping quickly, and was surprisingly ice free. This pond is normally the first to freeze, perhaps the greater volume of water retains more "heat". It's still about a metre higher than its normal,level, but obviously the pump is operating now and I expect it to be at its usual level by tomorrow.

This dark line, half way up the bushes is where the water was only yesterday 
The tops of the reeds are just starting to show again.

Even so the current depth is too much to allow the dabbling ducks to reach the weed. But Coots dive then dabble, or in this case, dabble then dive. You can hear male Teal calling in the background.

There were 24 Teal on this pond plus at least 10 on Tim Butler pond. A flock of 30+ flew over towards the central marsh. 64 minimum.

This male Teal was seeing off the others, the initial altercation is followed by what appears to be ritual mimicry (or, perhaps, just taking the mickey!)

Mallard 14

Gadwall 18 many just resting in the shelter of the margin bushes.

No Tufted Duck today, there were 4 males yesterday 

Little grebe 1 - this is the first record since the last freeze.

This clip, begins with Gadwall resting in the margins, past some of the Teal and ends on the Little grebe and a Mallard pair.

A second pair of Mute Swans are now on Tim Butler pond.

South shore (MD)

I exercised my daughter's dog along the sea wall at lunchtime, fortunately just getting back to my car as the blizzard started.

Cormorants lined up on the seaward end of No.2 outflow. It looks like they
are taking a sauna, but that damp air will be a lot colder than it looks.

Rock Pipit 2 - Red Nab and sea wall near wooden jetty

Kittiwake c30 - there were 20+ near the harbour waterfall plus at least 10 along the sea wall, most on No.1 outflow. This first winter, very kindly did a pirouette to display all its plumage detail.

Sandeels keep the Kittiwake around

A cold night followed by a sunny day. Light north to NE wind.

Janet's ankle must be getting stronger, she had a good walk around today.

Robin along dog walk path

Song Thrush in Nature Park

Female Bullfinch (a male had just left) in Nature Park

Little Egret on Red Nab
A lot of splashing for a small shrimp!

Curlew passing the wooden jetty 

First winter Kittiwake on No.2 outflow

Kittiwakes near the waterfall 

Kittiwake near the waterfall, the adult has a small fish
It looks to be a sandeel, more on this below

I also checked the south wall (MD). It was calm, clear, sunny and full of Kittiwake. At least 58, 30 near the waterfall 10 on No.1 outflow and 18 on No.2 outflow. 

The fish in Janet's picture looks to be a Sandeel, this young Herring Gull just flew down to the waterfall and returned with this fish, which is certainly a Sandeel.

Herring gull with a Sandeel 

Sandeels (and Whitebait which is the other possibility for the fish in Janet's picture) shoal in very large numbers and is almost certainly what is keeping the Kittiwakes on the outflows and in the harbour. With a bit of luck "more interesting" gulls could be attracted. 

Yesterday's young ringed Herring gull was on the platform again, we have received its history now - ringed as a pullus, on Walney Island 21/07/22, yesterday was its first record away from Walney.

Shag 1 immature in the harbour

Several of the Kittiwake are resting along the sea wall when not feeding.

Rock Pipit 2 along the sea wall

Kingfisher 1 on Red Nab

Wigeon 222 waiting in the channels on both sides of No.2 outflow

Shelduck 73 on the mud out from Ocean Edge foreshore 

Shelduck (and drake - front) soaking up the last of the sun's rays

Lapwing 390 flew from somewhere to settle on the shore out from the saltmarsh 

It was very nice looking up to the South Lakes today

Kittiwake hangover

 The strong overnight wind quickly eased, as did the overnight rain. After that light wind and some sunshine.

South shore

I went along the sea wall just as it was getting light (MD). It was still raining and the wind still strong, but both were quickly easing. I wanted to see what remained of yesterday evening's Kittiwake, it was a shame that the tide was out.

Kittiwake c40 - initially there were c30 in the harbour, mainly in the waterfall area, plus another 10 on the outflows and along the sea wall. But as the wind eased further they started making their way out of the harbour and some headed out, but others fed on both outflows.

These are mainly Kittiwake around the secondary waterfall, obviously it was still barely light.

There was as many around the main waterfall. 

As they were drifting out of the harbour some stopped off for a bit of a wash.....

........and brush up

Adult Kittiwake, drifting in the early morning light.
An altogether more peaceful scene than yesterday evening!

First winter Kittiwake (bottom) with Black-Headed Gull

When I was walking back there were still double figures in the harbour plus c15 on the two outflows.

Shag 1 feeding on the main waterfall 

Shag and Cormorant on the waterfall 

Pale-bellied Brent goose 3 - flew out.

Pale-bellied Brent flying past the buoy that was "missing" the other day

Rock Pipit 3 - they seemed to a territorial bird near No.1 outflow plus 2 together along the sea wall, that had gotten too close. It always amazes me how they can find food where you wouldn't expect. This is the corner of No.1 outflow. It would have been washed over (cleansed) by the wind driven waves at early morning high water. But clearly the pipit is finding something, they look like tiny marine snails.

Jean had a walk along the sea wall at lunchtime and did a thorough check of the Kittiwakes:

In total there were 26 Kittiwakes in the harbour, 5 of them 1st winters. 3 adult and 1 x 1st winter were on Heysham 1 outfall and 4 adult and 1 x 1st winter on Heysham 2 outfall. 20 Kittiwakes followed the ferry including 2 or 3 1st winters.

Jean's shot of the harbour kittiwake lined up, on the "old kittiwake" pipe near the waterfall 

208 Wigeon were near Heysham 2 outfall at low tide. 

Pete and Jean also checked the skear from Knowlys Rd:

Pale-bellied Brent goose 46 

Dark-bellied Brent goose 1

I did one more check of the south sea wall towards evening high water, only 23 Brent geese were visible on Red Nab, but some could have been behind the peripheral rocks. Kittiwake were pretty much as seen by Jean other than a further 25 that came in behind the SeaTruck.

I managed to read two more ringed gulls:

This Polish ringed Black-Headed gull was ringed as a pullus 13/06/2017
It has been seen at Heysham every winter since, but this is the first record this winter,
partly as increased dredging has reduced gull numbers roosting on the harbour platforms 

This young Herring gull is another of the NW England gull project
It took some manoeuvring to be able to see all the characters - details awaited

Finally, a first winter Kittiwake against the evening light

Kittiwakes everywhere (well, on the south side)

The wind eased overnight and the rain stopped by mid morning (apart from a heavy evening squall). The relatively light west wind in the morning strengthened throughout the day and was very strong by late afternoon.

Just my stuff so far (MD)

Heysham skear - low water 10:00

We're back to neap tides now, they don't go out very far!

Pale-bellied Brent geese 28 (none ringed) initially out from the play area, they must have been spooked and flew to the skear corner. But they soon made their way back up the shore. The bulk of the easy picking weed is among the rock pools where the rocks edge onto the shore.

Eider 2 male

Waders: Oystercatcher, Curlew, Redshank and Turnstone, plus

Knot 180

Dunlin 3

Common Snipe 2 (on inner skear)

Bar-Tailed Godwit 1

South wall - high water 15:40

Pale-bellied Brent goose 49 (almost certainly including this morning's 28)

Dark-bellied Brent goose 1

All on Red Nab, again no rings seen.

Today's tide was 25cm lower than yesterday's, but with 45 minutes flood left it was already higher than it reached yesterday. This is partly as the strong west wind was blowing it in, but mainly due to a significant drop in atmospheric pressure 1009 millibar yesterday 989 millibar today. 20 millibar lower, 1millibar is roughly equal to 1cm of water so with just atmospheric pressure today's tide would be 20cm higher than forecast. Forecast tide times and height are always just a guide. 

This is the tide moving the Brent and Wigeon closer to the sea wall.

This is the Dark-bellied (left)

Relatively easy to pick when its belly is exposed, not so easy when swimming. This is it (centre) in the same place but with the water a little deeper.

The white foam is a perfectly natural spume, formed when the wave action creates bubbles from the natural proteins in the seawater. The white foam turns brown over the shore as it picks up particles of mud, but is always white in open water.

The tide became too high for the Brent and they flew off south.

Some of the Brent leaving. The dark-bellied is in the middle of the leading birds,
and probably is the lead bird. Once again quite easy to pick in flight.

Kittiwakes - a walk along the sea wall saw Kittiwake all along it, although mainly focused around the outflows. I estimated at least 30 walking out, with another 3 in the harbour. But walking back it was easier to count as they were basically feeding by moving north along the wall then swinging back further out. So I counted all the birds passing me going north, and subtracted 1 for each one flying south, ending up with a very conservative 35, so 38 with the harbour birds.

I'd got back to Red Nab when I noticed the StenaLine coming in. It was already 15:35, but the light was holding and I couldn't resist popping back, when I reached No.1 outflow the sun came out briefly so I took these two clips. First, this shows the gulls, mainly Kittiwake, over No.1 outflow.

This clip,shows Kittiwake feeding along the sea wall

I reached the lighthouse just in time, the sun was still shining (although not for much longer), but a heavy squall was coming in with the StenaLine, the wind increased and the driving rain started. It was almost impossible looking out to,sea, but Most of the following gulls were driven into the harbour. In this clip most of the action happens below the sea wall, but if you watch carefully, best in slow motion, you can see a Kittiwake has a fish too large for it to swallow easily. It is pinched by a Herring gull, then a Great Black-backed tries to grab it. I can't  tell if the Herring gull managed to swallow it first.

This is the stern of the ship, followed by a cloud of gulls, not really much to see, but it does show the driving rain.

I remained sheltered behind the lighthouse for another 10 minutes, in that time 117 Kittiwakes drifted out of the harbour past me. There were still a few milling around, but there were three before the StenaLine arrived. So, 117 behind the StenaLine plus 38 already along wall and in harbour, 155 minimum total!

Heavy winds are blowing as I type and forecast to continue overnight. 

Cetti's singing again

Very heavy overnight west wind continued to ease during the morning. Overcast, but mainly dry with just a few light showers.

Middleton Nature Reserve (MD)

Little change in the wildfowl, no Pochard today but Three male Tufted duck.

Water Rail squealing from the central marsh

Cetti's warbler, also the central marsh bird, heard singing several times in a five minute visit.

South shore

I walked out before the ferry arrived (MD)

Kittiwake 17 including 6 first winter. Some, at least, seemed exhausted. This adult flew in 20 minutes before the ferry, and landed no more than 5 metres from me and settled for a rest on the sea wall near the lighthouse.

I managed to continue my walk without disturbing it

This second winter Great Black-backed gull is part of the North West England gull project
It was ringed 06/07/21 at Walney and was also seen in the harbour last winter, between 9/12/21 - 3/02/22
You seldom get coded rings so well orientated!

I watched the gulls follow the lunchtime ferry into the harbour, but relied on Pete to conduct an accurate count from the east side of the harbour.

The incoming ferry crossed over with Stenaline so ‘only’ 28 Kittiwake behind Ben my Chree. So with the 17 already around, at least 45 birds

Pete also advises that with the increasing number of Kittiwake around, there is a reasonable chance of a ringed bird, so each one is worth checking.

Dave Hawkins also walked along the wall and took these excellent Kittiwake shots from the outflows, behind the ferry and within the harbour. As ever with such high resolution pictures they should be opened to really appreciate the detail.

This one was one of 5 - 6 feeding above the waterfall 

On the way back a distant flock of 190 Lapwing flying south from the saltmarsh area

Rock Pipit 1 near wooden jetty

Wigeon 292 counted by Shaun around Red Nab

It was too early in the tide for any Brent geese, so I popped back for a quick check at 14:00.

Pale-bellied Brent 40 on Red Nab - the tides are dropping now and at 8.3m this afternoon's tide did not flush them off Red Nab, although it may have done if there were more walkers along the wall (there was only me!). But viewing towards high water over the weekend should be worthwhile.

The Kittiwake were still just about everywhere. This first winter flew over Red Nab, allowing a "bird's eye view" of the Oystercatcher, Wigeon and Brent geese.

Well, the "missing" buoy was back today. Obviously it was never missing, just out of sight. The tide was much higher when I checked yesterday, there must be something, presumably a very buoyant something, tangled around the buoys anchoring chain. Today, the tide was just starting to make and the buoy was already leaning under the strain. As the tide rose the buoy may have sunk out of sight again.

The left hand buoy was out of sight yesterday. You can already see it leaning as the tide starts
to make. Something entangled, quite high up, its anchor chain is pulling down on it.

Just out of the recording area. Purple Sandpiper roosting at high water on the groyne near Seaborne Rd. ref Shaun

Record Brent numbers

The SW wind freshened all day. Some very heavy showers.

First a few shots from Kevin Singleton

These Knot actually from last week, they are currently scarce 

Oystercatcher and Redshank on the old heliport wall today

South Shore rising tide late morning (MD)

Rock Pipit 2 bickering along the sea wall

Wigeon 191 in the channel next to No.1 outflow, waiting for the tide to reach Red Nab

Eider 1 female

Shag 1 at least on the wooden jetty

Kittiwake 10  at least - 2 x 1st winter and 3 adult both on No.1 outflow and around the harbour.

For a change I just kept my camera looking at one spot on the outflow all 5 Kittiwake make an appearance.

Adult and first winter Kittiwake, both looking sodden on the inner harbour wall

Pete checked the lunchtime ferry in:

77 kittiwake flew out associated with incoming Ben my Chree also c10 lingering before arrival.  

Also

Little gull 1 adult flew out further offshore.

Mediterranean gull 3cy behind ferry.  

Brent Geese - c40 went south past the harbour mouth before the ferry ie about 1150, then 63 pale-bellied went south past the north harbour wall at c1220-1230.  Therefore possibly over 100 Brent around Red nab!

Kevin Singleton had seen 42 in Half Moon Bay, all pale-bellied, probably the first lot seen by Pete. It was lashing down when I walked past Red Nab on my return, but there was obviously a lot of Brent there, all seen were Pale-bellied.

The strong winds are also having physical consequences

Fresh scarring and a scrape of paint on the north roundhead

One of the "two" buoys out from the north wall is missing

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Pochard 1 male

Tufted Duck 2 males

Mallard 2

Gadwall 18

This fox was keeping an eye on Janet as she exercised a dog
along the old go-cart track on Heysham Head

More Brents including first Dark-bellied

A fresh west wind blew all day, and miraculously, it remained mainly dry with just a couple of light showers.

South Shore

A morning check of the harbour located 

Kittiwake at least 4 including 2 x 1st winter 

Adult Kittiwake in the harbour 

Female Eider, catching the wind in the harbour mouth

Pete and Jean checked the lunchtime ferry in

Kittiwake 29 - it took a long time counting as they were slow to leave

Unfortunately, the incoming ferry crossed paths with the outgoing StenaLine
Some of its entourage of gulls may have switched allegiance.
Note the lights on the "noon" ferry

Tim Woodward counted 10+ Kittiwake between 15:00 - 16:00

1 managed a walk along the sea wall around lunchtime (MD)

57 Redshank lined up along No.1 outflow

Brent goose 44 Brent arrived at Red Nab at 11:35

But not all Pale-bellied, this Dark-bellied was feeding with them on my return. This is the first record this winter.

In this clip the Brent and Wigeon are feeding on the gutweed as the tide covers the rocks. It starts with a group of Pale-bellied Brent feeding, then focuses on the Dark-bellied Brent goose

Just after this clip they flew off towards the estuary

Little gull saves the day

A fresh wind initially SSE but shifting ever westwards after lunch. Persistent and heavy rain (Kevin's weather station shows 26mm of rain today by 20:00)

South shore

I set off in the heavy rain and it never eased (MD). I only had time for one walk today, and had planned to walk down to the lighthouse and await the lunchtime ferry. But the driving rain meant there was no opportunity to browse the shore, Red Nab etc. so I ended up, at the lighthouse 45 minutes before the ferry was due. It was still persisting it down so I decided to leave and headed back. My only sighting was:

Pale-bellied Brent goose 12 flew to Red Nab from the north side 11:25

Fortunately Pete managed to check the ferry in and just managed to scope through the terrible visibility 

Little gull 1 x 1st winter

Kittiwake 15 at least

Mediterranean gull 1 (probably, difficult through the gloom)

No gull pictures today, but I liked this one of a Kittiwake that I didn't use earlier in the week

Middleton Nature Reserve 

The water level of the "no swimming" pond is now above the south and west banks.

Gadwall 18

Tufted Duck 3 male

Tufted Ducks looking as miserable as it was!

I took this clip yesterday, but decided to save it for today, anticipating it not to be conducive to photography today. Daily visitors to the nature park leave seed mixes, and fat balls for the birds. This particular feeder is just below the small anemometer and is regularly stocked. Always worth a look.

The wind is getting stronger as I write. Very strong WSW wind forecast for tomorrow, and hopefully the rain will not be as heavy. Although it always feels heavy in driving rain!

More (quite a few more) of the same

A fresh wind varying between WSW and WNW. Reasonably dry after showers first thing.

Middleton Nature Reserve 

No sign of the Pochard today, other wildfowl pretty much as yesterday 

Two additional adult Mute Swan were flying around

South shore 

Well covered today, I had a walk along the wall to check the lunchtime ferry (MD). Mike Stocker checked in the afternoon. Pete and Jean watched the ferry in.

Pale-bellied Brent goose 35 were feeding on Red Nab on the rising tide but flushed by the tide before high water. They were back again when Mike checked later. I think they are all in this clip.

Rock Pipits 2

Kittiwake - Jean and Pete counted 23 behind the lunchtime ferry including 3 first winter (and, amazingly, I also managed to count 23 - I normally miss some). They left after the ferry berthed, but Mike saw c30 in the harbour again in the afternoon. 

Six Kittiwake behind the ferry

They are difficult to count accurately as they are very mobile. This is just a flavour

This adult flew right over my head as it was leaving

Adult Kittiwake 

Red-breasted Merganser 1 seen morning and afternoon 

Shag 1 in the harbour (Mike)