Planet Earth is blue.......

A heavy early morning shower, followed by a dry and sunny day with a light east wind.

South Shore (MD, JP)

I walked out on to the shore on the rising tide (Malcolm). We are back to spring tides now and it comes in very quickly over the flat shore out from Ocean Edge. Not something to attempt if you are inexperienced with the tides here.

The tide was already moving the waders south and several hundred had already left as I approached the waterline. Even so there were still:

Bar-Tailed Godwit 645

Knot 1800

Dunlin 110

These are some of the Knot and Dunlin coming in to join a group of Godwit.

But the tide was racing in, and pretty soon I was surrounded by sea and fleeing waders! You can both see and hear how quickly the tide is coming in (the mud looks blue as the heavy early morning shower had both flattened and wetted it, making it a mirror for the now blue sky).

Although these tides do come in very quickly, you can still easily out pace them. The potential danger comes from it filling gullies between you and the shore. It is vital that you know the safe line to walk back. I was soon safely on the shore side of the last gully and checking the waders feeding inshore.

Grey Plover 24

Ringed Plover 16

Dunlin 120 (additional to the birds on the waterline)

Redshank 120

Redshank - the wet mud reflecting more than just the blue sky

Ringed Plover and a Dunlin

Grey Plover

Other waders:

Common Snipe 1

Oystercatcher 100

Curlew 80

Pale-bellied Brent goose 22 flew from Red Nab to Potts Corner

Pale-bellied Brent geese

Pink-Footed goose 104 (72 and 32) south

Janet had a walk along the sea wall.

Black-Headed gull with what looks like a small Pipefish

Black-Headed gull with a fish (probably a young Whiting or Pouting)

Rock Pipit near the lighthouse 

Cormorant on one of the platforms in the harbour

In the Nature Park

Coal Tit

Male Blackbird 

North shore

Howard managed to read several Knot on the high water roost on the Heliport. This is a particularly nice shot (and a blue ring for a blue day)

Knot

Common Scoter 1 beyond the groyne at Whinnysty lane

Common Scoter - record shot by Kevin Singleton 

Heysham skear - low water 18:30 (MD)

It was such a lovely evening that I couldn't resist another walk, although my legs are letting me know about now! (Malcolm)

There was a group of small ducks being rushed through the first channel by the outgoing tide. Small ducks here can be interesting, unfortunately the light was behind them and they were drifting into the setting sun.

Turned out they were Wigeon, 17 ended up to the south of the channel and another 10 to the north. We don't normally get Wigeon here except for off passage, they are probably struggling with the shortage of gutweed on the north side.

Eider 80+

Red-breasted Merganser 3

Great Crested Grebe 3

This evening's walk was hard work, but worth every ache in my limbs!

After the sun sets in winter, it soon becomes dark, I set off back in twilight and it was dark by the time I reached the promenade. These 14 Pale-bellied Brent were just getting ready to leave too.

Just after this clip they flew west towards the other side of the bay.

Pink-Footed goose 230 in one flock north

Just out of the recoding area - Middleton Parish Hall

The Glossy Ibis was feeding in the horse paddock behind the Hall early morning and last report at 15:30 by Hugo Charlton-Jones 

More interesting than anticipated

The strong overnight east wind had eased by morning and continued easing all day, ending up light. The rain was never very heavy but low cloud and showers all day.

South Shore (MD, JP)

I just checked the saltmarsh towards high water (Malcolm)

Jack Snipe 1

Common Snipe 18

Reed Bunting 3

Redshank 150

Turnstone 5

Shelduck 9

Wigeon c200

Janet walked along the sea wall later on the ebbing tide.

Pale-bellied Brent geese 10 at least.

Pale-bellied Brent plus a male Wigeon

Shag 2 immature in the harbour

The Shag at the back is at least 1 year older than the front bird

The younger Shag climbed onto one of the platforms.........

......... revealing a metal ring on its right leg.
Janet managed a close up of the ring identifying some of its 
numbers. Unfortunately, not enough to identify it. Shame.

Cormorants on Red Nab

Rock Pipit standing on the harbour wall near the waterfall 

Middleton Nature Reserve (MD)

Just a quick check of the two main ponds

Mute Swans - the adult pair were back on the "no swimming" pond and the only other wildfowl on the pond were a Coot and a Moorhen. Just three of the immature Swans remained on the main pond.

Also on the main pond.

Mallard 12

Gadwall 2

Tufted Duck 1 male

Coot 5

Moorhen 4

Little Grebe 1 

This male Siskin turned up on Kevin Eaves feeders this afternoon 

This record of the Glossy Ibis at Middleton Parish Hall.  “Saw it this morning I live in a house that backs onto the field”. Katie just before 0900. Curtesy of Middleton and LA3 district Facebook group 

It wasn't feeding when checked at 10:30. So if it isn't there when you arrive wait a while.

Mute in name only!

The east wind freshened all day ending up very strong. Showers all day mainly of sleet. 

Heysham Head (MD)

I had a walk around this morning, partly to see how many Rock Pipits there were below the cliffs. We have had a least two nesting pairs here for the last few years, but I couldn't find a single bird today. Plenty of time yet.

Oystercatcher 1,000

Knot 1200

Redshank 20

Turnstone 10

Curlew 4

Shelduck 2.

Red Nab (MD)

Just a quick look at high water 

Pale-bellied Brent goose 10

Wigeon 100+

Shelduck 9

Curlew 40

Oystercatcher 300

Redshank 18

Turnstone 10

Janet's shot of a Turnstone in yesterday's more clement weather

Middleton Nature Reserve (MD)

Again, just a quick passing check. It wasn't a day for lingering!

The pair of Mute Swans were trying to clear the main pond of last year's cygnets. Whether they have decided to nest on this pond this year, or just want both ponds to themselves remains to be seen.

In this clip the female is preventing the young ones from accessing the feeding station (you can see them looking at each other, wondering what they've done wrong). Meanwhile the male was actively chasing them away.

You can hear a Little Grebe trilling quite early in this clip.

One of the youngsters had already been chased off to the "no swimming" pond. I doubt it will be tolerated there for long. It looked forlorn and was making contact calls to its missing siblings. You can just about hear its calls above the traffic and a Great Tit.

Mallard 10

Gadwall 4

Coot 6

Moorhen 5

Little Grebe 1

Cetti's Warbler - full blown song today from NE corner of the "no swimming" pond.

Jean shared an interesting statistic, there were 74 bird species covered by this post in January. It isn't really a reflection of a high number of rarities, but often the regular birds fail to get a mention. Janet's regular supply of excellent pictures of "ordinary" birds, goes a long way to addressing this.

Just out of the recording area - Middleton Parish Hall

Glossy Ibis still feeding in the horse paddock behind the Hall.

Pete advises that for the last couple of days at least it has left early, before 15:00. If you are planning a visit, best arrive before then.

Brent having to work hard for their food!

A dry sunny day, the light breeze both varying in strength and direction.

South shore (MD, JP)

I went down the sea wall an hour before morning high water (Malcolm). Janet checked on the ebbing tide.

Pale-bellied Brent goose 22 - 20 were already feeding on Red Nab quite early in the tide, they were joined by another 2 that came in high from the north. They included the Canadian arctic ringed birds with a 1st winter youngster. They have been wearing these rings for ten years now, that's 19 transatlantic flights for the rings, more for the birds,as they were already breeding adults when ringed.

But the gutweed on Red Nab is now very short cropped and tempers (and feathers) were becoming frayed.

Unusually, they all left Red Nab and flew to the north shore. There isn't much gutweed there either, but at least what weed there is, isn't maintained to billiard table standard by 300+ Wigeon.

Shelduck 22

Wigeon 300+

Eider 1

Shag 1 sub adult was on the wooden jetty when I checked, but is was in the middle of the harbour when Janet got there.

Shag

Rock Pipit 6 at least - there was just a single bird along the sea wall, but at least 5 between the lighthouse and the waterfall, including 2 displaying males (one at each end). This clip isn't great, but it does catch the end of the male's display flight.

This clip begins with a male calling (after this clip he takes off in a display). You can hear a female replying and that's her at the end of the clip.

Rock Pipit at the harbour 

Grey Heron on Red Nab

Little Egret on Red Nab

Turnstone 

Heysham skear - low water 16:00 (MD)

Pale-bellied Brent goose 22 - seen resting on the mud at the waterline, plus occasionally flying around, presumably when spooked from the rocks near the play area.

Brent geese in the evening light, waiting to go back to feeding out from the play area

Eider 143

Wigeon 4 

Red-breasted Merganser 1 male

Great Crested Grebe 1

Oystercatcher 2,000

Knot 1,500

Curlew 20

Redshank 60

Turnstone 100

Ringed Plover 12

Dunlin 6

Peregrine Falcon 1 - targeting the Redshank 

Just out of the recording area - Middleton Parish Hall

Glossy Ibis 1 - in the horse paddock behind the Hall.

Today's shot by Chris Penrice
Goodness knows what weight of earthworms it has taken from the paddock
and adjacent field. Chris saw it catch two in the ten minutes that he watched.

Some think it is spring......they may be disappointed!

Strong overnight SW winds quickly eased in the morning and gradually shifted to NW. The early heavy rain also eased by late morning leaving a dry afternoon.

South shore

A check first thing along the sea wall saw no sign of any seabirds being blown in.

Rock Pipits 5 - 2 along the sea wall and 3 on the harbour wall above the favoured nest site near the lighthouse.

Pete watched the lunchtime ferry in

Kittiwake 1 adult behind ferry (also 1 yesterday)

Shag 1 sub adult in the harbour

Middleton Nature Reserve (JP, MD)

Just the two main ponds checked.

Mute Swan pair plus 7 immature. The adult were on the "no swimming" pond and the juveniles were not welcome. One was checking out last years nesting site.

Mallard 18

Gadwall 5

Tufted Duck 1 male

Coot 6

Moorhen 4

Little Grebe 1

Male Gadwall

Mallard and Little Grebe

Male Tufted Duck

Long Tailed Tit

Imperial Rd (MD)

Greylag goose 46 - feeding in the field just to the east of the road, many were partially obscured by the hedgerow along the road.

Greylag Geese

This clip is from further along the road looking back, even so some are still obscured. You can see vehicles travelling along the bypass (Bay Gateway).

The grass looks to be lush, there were also two Mute Swans happily feeding on it.

Stock Dove 1 north

Roe Deer 3 - this clip begins with a young buck. He is joined by an adult female (Mum) and then a second young buck (brother).

North Shore

Pale-bellied Brent goose 9 

Record and shot from Kevin Singleton 

We have now received the full history of the ringed Knot seen on the skear on Saturday. Turns out to be slightly unusual.

These comments from Rose Maciewicz, one of the scheme managers:

A very interesting history.  Note from the German Observer

 ‘Red Knots are regular migrants in the German Baltic Sea coast although there are very few in May and June, more common in autumn July-September but they are seldomly higher than double-digit counts. Some birds can sometimes still be found until the winter.’  

You can see it had more sense in 2023 as it went to Snettisham.  Maybe it was blown off course in August 2022 upon its return from the breeding grounds, or maybe it only went to Iceland/Norway to stage and then came back early but went to Germany; or maybe it just wandered around in the summer of 2022 as a 3CY.  We will never know.

The Rock Pipits and the Mute on Middleton Nature Reserve seemed to be at least thinking about nest sites. The grass is certainly growing as if it's spring, and the frogs are already spawning in my garden pond (Malcolm).

As well as the spawn, there are three male frogs in this shot,
eagerly anticipating the arrival of other early females

Unfortunately, even in these mild winters there is more than a good chance that the pond will freeze over again before the tadpoles hatch.

Just out of the recording area - Middleton Parish Hall.

Glossy Ibis 1

Green Sandpiper 1

In the horse paddock behind the Hall

Similar stuff, but better pictures.

Another dry but mainly overcast day with a SW wind.

Heysham Nature Reserve (JP)

Janet took this lovely shot of a male Chaffinch. If you open the image you can not only see the plumage in detail, but every visible character on its ring is legible.

Male Chaffinch 

South shore (MD, KE)

A walk along the sea wall around lunchtime 

Wigeon c300 - this clip of a pair cropping the already closely cropped gutweed attached to a rock is actually from yesterday.

Bar-Tailed Godwit 1 feeding on the beach next to the wooden jetty

Shag 1 - initially in the middle of the harbour.

Cormorant (left) and Shag

Later the Shag flew out of the harbour to the wooden jetty. This is similar to yesterday's clip when it flew in, but this one slightly clearer as I had time to set my camera today.

Shag 

The Shag wasn't the only thing to be speeding out of the harbour. This is a high speed rescue boat (hopefully on a training exercise).

Rock Pipit 3 (2 along sea wall an 1 at the lighthouse)

Siskin 2 at least in the trees near the white barrier (Kevin).

North shore (PJM)

Pale-bellied Brent goose 5 scattered amongst the rocks out from the play area

Just outside the recording area.

Heysham Moss Nature Reserve 

Janet spotted a Treecreeper 

Treecreeper 

Middleton Parish Hall

Glossy Ibis still in the horse paddock

Cetti's "singing" and Woodcock

The SW wind freshened but not as much as originally forecast. Largely dry but overcast.

Middleton Nature Reserve (MD)

Just a passing check of the two main ponds.

Wildfowl as recent except no Tufted Duck today and there were 3 Gadwall.

Cetti's Warbler one probably two, almost singing, more a sub song, from north and south bank of the "no swimming" pond.

Imperial Rd (MD)

Common Buzzard 2. A light and a dark morph bird.

The light morph bird was perched closest in the trees to the west.
Both birds were contact calling

The light morphed bird set off first

You can hear the contact calls in this clip.

It was then followed by the darker morphed bird, and then they both headed off to the SE.

Mallard 2

Teal 4

Heysham Nature Reserve (PJM)

Woodcock 1 - flew low over the car park and dropped in tank farm - presumably spooked on reserve by something.  

South Shore (MD)

A mid afternoon walk along the sea wall.

Shelduck 9

Wigeon 290 - I often refer to them being easy to count as they drift towards Red Nab on the rising tide. This clip shows what I mean.

 

Not 290 yet but another flock flew in

Shag 1 - it flew in from the along the north wall then turned into the harbour.

Shag and Cormorant 

Shag

It headed straight to the waterfall and began feeding.

Just out of the recording area - Middleton Parish Hall - Horse paddock

Glossy Ibis seen morning and afternoon 

Green Sandpiper at least in the afternoon.

Waxwing

A dry and largely sunny day after early morning rain. A light SW wind

Waxwing 1 - in a tall tree opposite the Heysham anemometer - Andrew McCafferty 

Heysham skear - low water 11:00 (MD)

It was only 3m low water so the tide only uncovered the inner skear.

Pale-bellied Brent goose 22 at least. These four (2 adult and 2 first winter) were trying to feed in one of the pools. The only gutweed here is on just a few of the rocks, and not very much of it at that.

Later a flock of 22 were just resting on the water on the north side of the skear.

Pink-Footed goose 44 south

Eider 15

Little Egret 2 - first ones see here for a while

Redshank 200+ this is a big increase to recent visits, it can only mean that there are now plenty of shrimps around. These are the same brown shrimps so synonymous with Morecambe Bay, but these will be tiny, although they will be in high concentrations. These are some of the waders catching them (the yellow pipes in this clip mark the safe route for the dinghy launching tractors).

(If you would like to better understand just how small these shrimps will be, visit the post 10/01/21, https://heyshamobservatory.blogspot.com/2021_01_10_archive.html )

Oystercatcher 2,000

Curlew 80

Knot 1,500

Turnstone 60

Dunlin 5

Ringed Plover 24

The Knot were feeding and I scanned them all for rings, out of the 1,500 there was only one ringed bird. This clip shows the difficulty of ring reading on the skear. It also includes an example of one of the rocks with just a bit of gutweed attached. The ringed bird is in the centre of the frame at the beginning of the clip.

Full details awaited, but it was ringed in Scotland in 2021 and has been seen in Heysham at least once before, by Howard in 2022.

Glossy Ibis at Middleton Parish Hall at least till midday 

Just a quick afternoon check

A fresh SW wind. Overcast with some light showers.

Most observers were unavailable today, I just had chance for a quick afternoon check (Malcolm)

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Just the two main ponds checked.

Mute Swan pair plus 7 immature 

Mallard 20

No Gadwall today

Tufted Duck 2 (one male on each pond)

Coot 6

Moorhen 4

Little Grebe 2 (one on each pond). The main pond bird was showing close to the feeding station, but only ever on the surface for a few seconds. These are three typical views. The grunting is the swans feeding.

Little grebe

A flock of Long-Tailed Tits were enjoying the fat balls left by visitors.

South shore

No brent geese on Red Nab

Wigeon 200+

Shelduck 22 out from the saltmarsh 

Shag 1 initially on one of the platforms in the harbour near the waterfall. It waddled over to the edge of the platform and seemed to be thinking about leaving.

But it decided to remain

Later as I was approaching the lighthouse it flew through the harbour mouth and landed on the wooden jetty.

Rock Pipit 2 - waterfall and saltmarsh 

Weasel 1 - scurried from the west side of the saltmarsh to rocks around the edge.

Just out of the recording area - Middleton Parish Hall

Glossy Ibis still feeding in the horse paddock behind the hall.