A nice piece of serendipity

A dry day with light SW wind.

I didn't have much time today and I set off late morning, with the intention of just checking the main ponds at Middleton, but decided to check Imperial Road first (MD)

Imperial Rd

There was a lot going on here, nothing unusual, but interesting.

Little Egret 6 on the east side of the road, making these "seen from" the recording area. But at least it shows there are still plenty in the area.

Song Thrush 2 singing, one with a Buzzard's call as part of its repertoire 

Blackbirds 6+

Bullfinch pair at least

Greenfinch 6+

Goldfinch 4

Chaffinch 4

At least 6 each Blue and Great Tits. No Long-Tailed and Coal Tits seem completely absent from the area at the moment.

This clip is a Blue Tit, it's the only Tit I haven't shown a clip of recently. Every UK reader will instantly recognise it, as it one of our commonest birds, found in almost every back garden. But its fine lines and colours are generally overlooked and probably more appreciated by American birders (and we do seem to be getting increasing numbers of American post readers)

Kestrel 1

Middleton Nature Reserve 

I was only going to see if the Pochard was still there, it was. And see if I could locate any Siskin, I couldn't. I was only here 10 minutes and if I hadn't have called in at Imperial way I would have left 30 minutes earlier. I was back at the bottom car park by the main pond and was just about to leave, when I heard a Little Grebe trilling out of sight behind the bushes. So I got my camera ready and made my way to the water's edge.......then, all the gulls suddenly lifted, screaming, I looked up and a raptor was flying across the far side of the pond low towards the west. My camera was ready, so it was a case of shoot first and ask questions later! Turned out it was a

Hen Harrier 1 female/immature 

I was quite pleased with my final pictures at least they confirm the species. But the above shots are zoomed in stills from the clip I took, it was only in my line of sight for a few seconds. This is the clip.

Normally, I would have pursued it to see if it had landed, but I was already late for lunch, so I thanked my luck and headed for home.

Pete and Jean managed a check around high water

Pale-bellied Brent goose 17 flew south past the Near Naze and were relocated on Red Nab.

Shag 1 immature on wooden jetty

Kittiwake 9 still on the pipe in the SW corner of the harbour

Jean managed the first ringing session of the year:

 27 birds caught today at Heysham, 15 new and 12 retraps:

Greenfinch 2 new, 2 retraps including one from 2018

Chaffinch 1 new

Goldfinch 3 new, 2 retraps including one from 2019

Bullfinch 1 retrap from 2019

Great Tit 2 recent retraps

Blue Tit 2 new and 1 retrap from 2020

Long-tailed Tit 3 new, 1 retrap

Blackbird 1 new (female)

Robin 2 new

Dunnock 1 retrap from 2017

Surprise bird - Woodpigeon. 

Plenty of snipe, but for the wrong reason!

A fresh SW wind, rain all morning but a largely dry but overcast afternoon.

I don't know what happened yesterday with the video links. When I initially published the post the blog wouldn't allow me to open any of the clips. When I tried later it seemed to be resolved, presumably a bug in the system somewhere. I hope it is working correctly for everyone now.

I didn't get out till almost high water in the afternoon (MD), so missed any Brent that may have been on Red Nab. Still 200+ Wigeon around and a few Shelduck.

Saltmarsh:

Reed Bunting 5

Reed Bunting - this is actually one of yesterday's shots when the sun shone!

Rock Pipit 1

Common Snipe 60 - 15 were lifted by the tide, which is all I would expect with this height tide which just covers the outer fringes of the marsh. Then two flocks flew over from the north c15 and c30 circled and left towards Middleton Nature Reserve. Unusual, but later Howard explained that a couple of guys practicing casting at the Near Naze had lifted everything, including the snipe. 

Some of the Snipe passing over the saltmarsh 

Middleton Nature Reserve 

I had a good walk around, with the intention of locating any winter thrushes (MD). The only thrushes seen were 4 Blackbirds!

Mute, Coot, Moorhen and Mallard as yesterday.

Gadwall 8

Teal 4

Pochard 1 male

I went all arty!

Little Grebe 2 trilling - heard only - one on both the main ponds

Water Rail 1 squealing

Woodcock probably 3 - definitely 2 which I accidentally flushed. A third bird was flushed by a dog some distance away and almost certainly a different bird.

Great Spotter Woodpecker 1 male 

Also heard drumming

There were two mixed tit flocks moving around one with 20+ Long-Tailed, 6 Great and 6 Blue Tits. The other with c16 Long-Tailed, 2 Great and 4 Blue Tits. In the next two clips I am in the middle of the larger flock. Wildlife, generally tends to tolerate my presence, and the Long-Tailed and Blue Tits did, and went about their business of feeding. But these Great Tits told me in no uncertain terms that they wished me to move on

I duly obliged and left them to it

Goldcrest 2 - one with the larger tit flock

Later Mark Jones had a short, but productive walk:

Just managed to get out to Middleton NR for the last hour today there was a cormorant fishing when I arrived but it quickly left, the swans were split between the 2 lodges (main and "no swimming" ponds).

On my way up the path I saw a flock of goldfinch feeding in the alder but heard a siskin the light was bad but I just managed to get a record shot.

Siskin (top) and Goldfinch - Siskin are now quite an uncommon sight feeding in the recording area.

Siskin

Finally, this last record is some way out of the recording area, but definitely visible from it. Picture and report from Kevin Eaves.

This is a photo of the comet that has featured in the news recently. It's on its way out to the deep Solar System, and has passed its closest point to earth. I managed to capture this image with a Unistellar telescope from my Heysham home. The comet last visited the inner Solar System around 50,000 years ago, and its close encounter with the Sun and other celestial bodies may have altered its orbit so that it could never come this way again.

Definitely worth opening this picture to enjoy the detail

A bit of variety

A sunny day with a fresh west wind.

I don't know why the blog has started putting a "robot" check for videos. I cant manage to watch any (maybe I am a robot!) so don't know how you'll manage. Hopefully its just a bug that will be sorted out (Malcolm)

Heysham skear low water 07:45 (MD)

A very pleasant walk, but very little on the sea.

Eider c30

Red-breasted Merganser 1 female

A collection of Cormorants, Eider and Oystercatcher resting on a sand bar

Still no Little Egrets 

Knot c500 on the skear another 1,500 heading south 

Oystercatcher c2,000

Dunlin c25

Dunlin with an impressive bill

Curlew c15

Curlew (with an even more impressive bill) resting on a honeycomb worm reef

Turnstone 100+

Turnstone 

Pale-bellied Brent goose 8-9 - 5 flew in from the west then headed north, but could have doubled back. 4 were in the skear corner later on. 8 were feeding out from the play area as I returned.

This is one of the skear corner birds, followed by a group of Knot that had been having a wash and a drink in the groundwater runoff.

Barrel Jellyfish are still being stranded, although this one was more bean can sized.

The early morning moon was impressive - a waning gibbous 

Pete managed to read two ringed Knot from only 220 on the Near Naze. This one has quite an interesting history.

Also from Pete:

Shag 1 on the wooden Jetty

Kittiwake 2 first winter on No.2 outflow.

Janet went through her pictures from yesterday and managed to find this one where I can identify the food item.

First winter Kittiwake with a Common Goby

10 Pale-bellied Brent, just before leaving Red Nab

Middleton Nature Reserve (MD)

Mute Swan 2 adult plus 5 immature 

Coot 3

Moorhen 4

Mallard 11

Gadwall 11

Teal 1 on the "no swimming" pond, but others heard on the Tim Butler pond

Little Grebe 3 at least including two trilling. This one was swimming across the main pond while a second bird was trilling, unfortunately you can't hear it in the clip.

There was another one trilling on the "no swimming" pond. A flock of at least 16 Long-Tailed Tits were passing by. This isn't a great clip of one, but you can hear that I am surrounded by them, and at the very end of the clip you can just hear the Little Grebe trilling.

Jackdaw 39 heading south. They seemed to be moving with some intent.

Redwing c20 flew in a loose gathering north from the gun club area.

Mistle Thrush 2 feeding in the horse paddock to the east of Tim Butler pond.

Just after this clip they were spooked by a Sparrowhawk and flew south.

A day in pictures

The light southerly breeze continues, accompanied with sunshine today.

All today's photographs are high resolution, there is little narrative so best just open the pictures and scroll through them.

First, I knew I didn't have much time today so I saved these two pictures from Howard yesterday.

Near Naze Rock Pipit

Knot and Oystercatcher on "high alert" as yesterday's Sparrowhawk was still around

I only had time for a quick walk on the south side today (MD). Fortunately as I reached Red Nab, Janet was just returning, so I didn't go any further. Janet took these lovely shots, all of birds currently easily visible during a stroll along the sea wall.

Some of the 250+ Wigeon 

First winter Kittiwake feeding on the outflows. Not sure what
it has  here, can't even be certain that it is a fish.

First winter Kittiwakes preening on their pipe near the harbour waterfall 

First winter Kittiwake feeding over the harbour waterfall 

Young Herring Gull

Some of the many thousand Oystercatcher 

Pale-bellied Brent goose just 6 seen on Red Nab

Grey seal 1 was eating a fish with a cloud of gulls above. Unfortunately, it was underwater for most of the time. Little to see here, other than the clue to check for gulls behaving like this, if you want to spot a feeding seal.

Finch day

A very light south wind, mainly overcast with some drizzle.

South Shore (MD)

A walk along the sea wall a couple of hours before high water.

Greenfinch 6 in the trees behind Red Nab.

Greenfinch 

Wigeon c250

Shelduck c50

Pale-bellied Brent goose 37- 30 arrived at Red Nab from the north side 90 minutes before high water. Later Howard saw 37 leaving towards Potts. Later still, Pete reported 37 heading back to Red Nab from Potts Corner.

Brent geese arriving at Red Nab, all seen were pale-bellied

Not long after them was another precession of Oystercatcher, the Heliport Sparrowhawk was active again. Not so many Oystercatcher today and no Knot with them, even so they piled through like this for over three minutes.

Kittiwake 1 adult plus 2 first winter on outflows. 1 adult plus 9 first winter in harbour 

Shag1 immature in the harbour. It kindly provided a nice display.

Rock Pipit 3 - 1 on Red Nab plus 2 together near the lighthouse nesting area. I had heard the male calling earlier, but can't be certain which of these, if any, is the male, but they were directly above last year's nest hole.

On the way back Red Nab was busy, the tide was pushing the Brent closer to the sea wall and the additional Oystercatchers added to the melee. 

One of the Brent geese had two white rings, but just beyond my reading range

Howard's shot of most of the Brent heading south (3 out of shot) with a famous
 landmark in the background (Blackpool tower for our overseas readers)

Nature Park

Bullfinch pair

Goldfinch 10+

Chaffinch 2 - this is the male. You can tell from the background twittering that there was a lot going on.

Middleton Nature Reserve 

A check of the two main ponds saw nothing new, but the Alders just south of the main pond were popular. A mixed tit (just Long-Tailed, Great and Blue) moved through, probably heading to the feeders at the feeding area.

Bullfinch 6 (3 each male and female)

Two of the male Bullfinch

Goldfinch 8, these are some of them teasing the seeds from the Alder cones. The humming is the sub station directly behind me.

Nothing new, but still plenty of interest

Another light overnight frost. A dry, often sunny day with very light southerly wind.

South sea wall (MD)

Just a lunchtime stroll around high water.

Pale-bellied Brent goose - Red Nab was almost covered and I just saw the "last" three heading off south.

Shelduck 23

Wigeon 200+

Kittiwake reducing numbers but still 2 first winter on No.1 outflow and 2 adult plus 8 first winter in the harbour - none behind the lunchtime ferry.

This is one of No.1 outflow's first winter birds with the wooden jetty in the background (plenty of Cormorants roosting but I couldn't locate a Shag amongst them).

These are two first winter around the secondary waterfall in the harbour and shows the variability of their plumage at this stage.

Rock Pipit 3 - 1 on Red Nab, 2 near the lighthouse including a male display calling, but not seen parachuting today, but he was strutting his stuff!

Male Rock Pipit (he had been display calling) above the nest area used for
the past three years. But this is a new male, the previous one was ringed.

There was a precession of Oystercatcher past the roundhead which lasted about 15 minutes. There were also two flocks of Knot c1,000 each. Richard saw a Sparrowhawk flush the birds from the heliport.

Knot zipping past the wooden jetty

Weasel 1 scurried across Moneyclose Lane

Middleton Nature Reserve (MD)

I'm still checking the two main ponds most days, but there has been little to report, just varying numbers of Gadwall (23 max) and Teal (6 max). Tufted Ducks sometimes 2 sometimes none.

North Shore (MD)

Just a quick afternoon check, mainly to count any Brent. There was only one smallish group of, but these did include the Canadian ringed birds.

Pale-bellied Brent Goose 13

Bar-Tailed Godwit 1

Dunlin 30

Knot c1,000

These are mainly Knot with a few Dunlin, looking brown in the low evening light. The Knot are finding and eating relatively large molluscs. You may need to watch the clip in slow motion to see the detail.

Solitary Common Snipe 

Plenty of waders today

Light overnight frost. A dry day with some sunshine, particularly in the morning. Light SE wind.

South shore (MD)

A walk on the shore out from the saltmarsh was more productive today. I knew it was going to be as these Knot and Bar-Tailed Godwit were arriving as I arrived at the saltmarsh.

10 wader species counted, these are the minimum numbers within the recording area, there were many more to the south and easily visible.

Oystercatcher c40

Redshank 5

Lapwing 1 (just a solitary bird flying south!)

Common Snipe 3 (lifted from marsh grass just south of the saltmarsh)

Ringed Plover 13

Dunlin c2,000

Knot c3,000

Grey Plover 45

Bar-Tailed Godwit 170

Curlew c40

These are Bar-Tailed Godwit and Knot joining a mixed flock of Dunlin, Knot, Grey Plover, Bar-Tailed Godwit and Curlew.

Grey Plover, Knot and Bar-Tailed Godwit.

Bar-Tailed Godwit, Grey Plover (bottom) and Knot (Top)

Not so frantic, but I like this clip of a Redshank picking up small invertebrates in the rising tide - ending with a reflection of the Power Station.

Shelduck c150 - the shot below shows where one has been feeding in the soft mud. You can see its webbed footprints and the shallow scollops in the mud where it has filtered out any invertebrates.

Evidence of Shelduck feeding

Wigeon 200+ Red Nab

Pale-bellied Brent Goose 44 Red Nab

Pink- Footed goose 123 north in 3 skeins between 11:05 and 11:40

Skylark 3 together low to north, a little later 1 flew high to south

Reed Bunting 5

Rock Pipit 4 (2 together on saltmarsh, 1 each on foreshore and Red Nab)

Raven 1 on pylons Heysham Nature Reserve this afternoon (ref Jean)

Better timing......better conditions.......shame about the birds!

A light SW wind, overcast all day with just a couple of light showers.

South shore - high water 10:50 (MD)

I was a bit late going down yesterday and the waders were already leaving. Today I timed it just right, 90 minutes before high water. This height tide (8.5m) is good too, not high enough to cover all of the shore but last night's tide was high enough to wet most of the mud providing more feeding options. There were several large flocks of distant waders on the wing, but the beach was deserted, and so it remained. The flying birds didn't seem to be being threatened by a raptor. For some reason today wasn't a good day to feed here after all.

Although the "beach" was deserted, there was this smallish flock of Dunlin, Knot, Grey Plover and Bar-Tailed Godwit feeding along the tideline.

They weren't there for long, this clip is just a minute later, you can tell that they are going to move on as even the Dunlin had stopped feeding.

This is the beach looking back to the saltmarsh, the avian equivalent of the Mary Celeste!

But the skies were still full of waders, they seemed to be heading for the estuary, they weren't even resting on the beach out from Potts Corner.

Mainly Bar-Tailed Godwit and Knot

Nearer to the saltmarsh the Black-Headed Gulls seemed to be finding plenty to eat. I can only think they were finding seeds of some sort in the flotsam.

Wigeon 150+ Red Nab

Eider 1 female Red Nab

Shelduck 128 shore and Red Nab

Pink-Footed Goose 131 north in 4 skeins, last at 11:30

Pale-Bellied Brent goose 37 at least on Red Nab.

This is only a short clip, but there is a lot going on. First it includes Eider, Shelduck and Brent geese for a nice size comparison. One of the Bernt is a Red/Blue ringed bird, almost certainly one of the Canadian pair, it sees off a Shelduck that presumably got too close to its mate.

Kittiwake 23 - 3 adult and 20 first winter, most in the harbour.

But this first winter was patrolling between Red Nab and No.2 outflow.

And this adult was one of two around No.1 outflow

The other one of two adult Kittiwake on No.1 outflow

Shag 1 immature resting on the wooden jetty

Rock Pipit 5 - 1 each saltmarsh and Red Nab, 3 near the lighthouse including a displaying male.

Carrion Crow with white chest under feathers. This one was on the south side of saltmarsh.
There were two like this last year, this is either one of those or a very close relation

Bullfinch 3 including 1 male near Nature Park newt pond (ref Angela)

Plenty of waders, but nothing different

The SW wind eased. Drizzle in the morning then overcast for the rest of the day.

South shore - high water 10:10 (MD)

I went on the shore out from the saltmarsh to see what the tide brought in. There were thousands of waders and many thousands more just a little further south. All just the regular birds though.

Shelduck 79 

One of several groups of Shelduck

But not all were happy to share space

Lapwing 260

Comment Snipe 3 flushed by the tide from the marsh grass on the south side of the creek

Curlew 120

Knot c1,000

Dunlin c1,500

Bar-Tailed Godwit 60+

This clip through the drizzle is rubbish (if I do say so myself!), but gives a sense of the activity. It's basically Lapwing in foreground, Curlew in the background and some of the Dunlin, Bar-Tailed Godwit and Knot flying around. 

By the time I'd got to Red Nab the tide was starting to ebb.

Pale-bellied Brent geese 28 including 2 separate birds, but they were not ringed. As the tide was receding they were swimming to the outer rocks to reach the newly emerging gutweed.

Wigeon c200

Rock Pipit 1

Good news from Canada!

The west to SW wind continues. Showers with a few short sunny spells

First we have received details of another colour ringed Grey Wagtail (see scheme details on the side bar).

Record and picture from Gordon Taylor - Thanks

Ringed here last autumn - Present at Bootle 29-31/01/2023

North shore

Kevin Singleton checked the rocks out from the play area late morning. These two were apart from the rest of the Brent Geese.

This shot shows how difficult it can be to see, let alone read, rings in this terrain 

But Kevin nailed it with this shot
VTRB and VDRB (RB is just for the red and blue coloured rings)

Ringed as breeding adults - Axel Heiberg Island Canada 02/08/14 and have been seen here every winter since 2019. This is the first record this winter, and I was thinking that they hadn't managed the round trip again, so this was good to see. This is the third winter running when they have returned without any youngsters. But there are precious few youngsters this year (I haven't seen one MD).

I didn't have much time today, so just managed a walk on the skear towards low water - 16:15 (MD)

Pale-bellied Brent geese 67 in one flock feeding out from the play area, I suspected that there were more around.

Eider 4

Knot c750 Plus Oystercatcher, Curlew, Redshank and Turnstone 

Were my only company on the skear, and it rained almost constantly! These neap tides don't go out very far, but to someone viewing from the shore I must have looked a long way out (I'm probably not visible when I do go a long way) and reported me to the coastguard. I didn't know of course and probably made matters worse by sitting on a rock and probably looked dejected, but I was just waiting a while to see if the Brent flew to the waterline at low water (see yesterday's post). The tide had stopped going out and I could see, not hear, that the waves had changed, but it hadn't actually started coming in yet.......Then a "race" began. I saw a large group, of Brent waiting, not feeding but facing the sea from the rocks closest to the skear corner. These are some of them

They were about 150m from the skear corner, perhaps that was close enough for them to confirm that the tide was turning, but I was expecting them to fly to the corner any minute, but the other contestants in the race took effect. Two men in high visibility clothing and helmets (the coastguard). Unfortunately they spooked the Brent and they flew back to the rocks near the play area.

I was dumbstruck! I've walked here for over 50 years and this has never happened before. It seems they were going to launch the hovercraft but it was too windy. I explained what I was doing and that I do it regularly, they asked me to notify the Holyhead Coastguard when I plan to go out again, at least then if they receive a report they can reassure the reporter and not need to activate an "emergency ". I will do that in future. The coastguard do a vital job and I would not want to waste their time again.

The only other record was a Little Egret flying south, not much, but the first I've seen here since the cold spell in December.