More Brents

For most of the day there was no air movement, occasionally a very light variable breeze. The sun broke through by mid morning, but disappeared again after lunch.

Saltmarsh to Red Nab - mid morning (Malcolm)

The same short walk as yesterday morning, but there was a lot more around today.

Jack Snipe 1 accidentally flushed from the edge of the saltmarsh. Don't know why it at the edge, the tide wouldn't have reached the marsh today (it will tomorrow).

Linnet 35 feeding on and resting beside the saltmarsh.

Linnet

Reed Bunting 3

Reed Bunting 

Blackbird 1 by the saltmarsh 

Shelduck 53

Wigeon 150

Pale-belled Brent goose 10 (8 flew north from Red Nab).

Eight Brent geese getting ready to leave Red Nab
Two more in a freshwater runoff (foreground)

Brent, Wigeon and Shelduck drinking in a freshwater runoff

Little Egret 4

Grey Heron 1

Heysham skear - low water 15:40 (Malcolm)

Little Egret 15

Grey Heron 1

Great Crested grebe 7

Pale-bellied Brent goose 15. There were 7 amongst the Honeycomb worm "boulders" in the SE corner as I walked out.

They were difficult spotting here, and I assumed that I had missed one and that these
were the eight I saw earlier - four in this shot, note the abundance of sea lettuce 

When I was walking back along the north side I assumed a group of eight were the same birds.

Pale-bellied Brent geese between a couple of Honeycomb worm reefs on the north side

Then the seven from the SE corner flew over and they all fed together.

No chance of locating any flagged Knot this evening. The tides are getting higher
and the outer skear was exposed for the first time for over a week. All the Knot
were feeding out there and darkness was already descending 

The sun was setting again, not as spectacularly as yesterday, but it 
still marked the time to leave.

Fog forecast for tomorrow!

Good Knot day

A dry day with sunny spells. A light NE breeze.

South shore (Malcolm)

Just a quick check along the foreshore this morning. The only passerines seen from the saltmarsh to RedNab were one each, Robin, Wren and Dunnock.

Pink-Footed goose 218 south along the shipping lane

Shelduck 52

Wigeon 150

Heysham Skear.

Howard checked 3 hours after high water.

Pale-bellied Brent goose 3 initially on the sea then came inshore to feed on the sea lettuce exactly where it was photographed for yesterday's post.

Pale-bellied Brent geese

The Brent were still feeding there when I walked out towards low water (Malcolm).

Little Egret 8

Great Crested grebe 2

I'd gone to see if I could locate any flagged Knot. Initially there were c2,000, but the tides are getting higher now and a lot of inaccessible skear is available to them. 

Knot on the skear

It wasn't until the incoming tide pushed them back up, before I started locating flagged birds, all orange flags. Amazingly I ended up managing to find eight birds not seen here before this autumn. 

But even then, most of the legs were obscured for most of the time

But occasionally one would show well

By this time they had been joined by more Knot at least 2,500 now, including the melanistic bird. It seemed to appear out of nowhere, and it certainly seemed to be minding its own business. Most of the time it was resting at the edge of a group.

Melanistic (dark) Knot just left of centre

It just showed its head briefly here as some displaced birds were flying over.

By this time the sun was setting and the moon rising. The Knot were heading off, and I joined them.

I do love the sunsets here, shame they are so early at this time of year!

Waxing gibbous moon, telling us that we are rapidly moving to spring tides

Horizons return!

Hardly any air movement, but what there was today came from the north. The sun finally broke through by mid morning and it became warm and pleasant.

South shore 

The sea wall was unexpectedly open so I had a nice walk along it this morning. For the first time in a week the distance wasn't lost in the mist. You could see for miles, shame there was nothing to see!

Wigeon 120

Wigeon resting beside No.2 outfall

There must have been plenty of food going through the outfalls as both
were full of gulls, mainly Black-Headed

Blackbird 1 in scrub near the lighthouse 

Reed Bunting 1 on saltmarsh 

Linnet 30 on saltmarsh 

Linnet

One Small Tortoiseshell came in off this morning

When Kevin checked after lunch, this Red Admiral was
resting on the sea wall

The sun brought out the Harlequin Ladybirds on the fence 
at Ocean Edge entrance

North Shore

Pale-bellied Brent goose 7 on Heysham skear this morning - David Kaye

I went on the skear at low water this afternoon (Malcolm), the Brent had moved on, not for lack of food. There is still loads of gutweed and sea lettuce here.

This is sea lettuce, a weed the Brent seem to favour over gutweed

Little Egret 10

This is the NE corner of the skear. The Stone Jetty is much further away than it looks.

Eider 1 

No mergansers seen

Great Crested grebe 4

This is pretty much the same shot of a Great Crested grebe as yesterday,
although today the background is visible

Waders as recent including 2,500+ Knot

Knot

4 flagged Knot were seen, the others not quite as obliging as this
 previously seen one, but at least two new birds were read 

Another Yellow-Browed warbler

Another (looks like being the last), still dark day. Today, with light drizzle.

Shaun Coyle did a thorough check from Heysham Nature Reserve to the Nature Park 08:00 - 12:00.

Yellow-Browed warbler 1 feeding with 11-12 Long Tailed Tits moving very quickly north along the dog walk track. Initially beside the path opposite the pond, but quickly moved deeper into the wooded strip and couldn't be relocated.

Cetti's Warbler single burst of song from the edge of the marsh (near boardwalk). 

Goldcrest 2 near the Dipping Pond. 

Four different and solitary Coal Tits. 

South end of Tank Farm: 

Blackbird c40 (plus c15 on the reserve)

Song Thrush 4

Fieldfare 5 

Redwing 2 (plus 9 on the reserve). Several apple trees here. 

Woodcock flushed from the fence line too.

Female Sparrowhawk seen twice.

A stoat ran across the road just before the Ocean Edge entrance. 

Heysham skear - low water 10:45 (Malcolm)

Visibility was awful in the respect that you couldn't see far, but it produced some interesting effects.

Pink-Footed goose 2 skeins south but numbers unknown as they were above the low cloud (hardly surprising as the low cloud came down to the ground!)

Little Egret 4

Grey Heron 1

Red-breasted Merganser 4

Great Crested grebe 6

Great Crested Grebe, no shore, no sea and no sky!

A bit of shore and a hint of sea with these gulls

Eider 2

This pair of Eider reminded me of a Victorian
wedding photograph

There were over 2,500 Knot again, but I couldn't find any colour coded birds today.

Knot and a couple of Redshank

I waded out for a clearer look at their legs, even so the vast majority 
remain obscured 

Imperial Rd (Malcolm)

I called in passing just before it got dark(er) this evening, just in time to see.....

Woodcock 1 came quite high from the east and landed in the copse on the west of the road.

Just out of the recording area:

Richard’s pipit flew north west over the Lane Sunderland point at 0845 

Black Redstart 1 on the outer edge rocks of the Battery car park 

Still in the doldrums!

Almost no breeze, what little air movement there was came from the south. Another sunless day with low cloud.

Heysham skear - low water 10:45 (Malcolm)

Nothing different really

Pink-Footed goose 32 south

Eider 1

Red-breasted Merganser 5

Great Crested grebe 4

Little Egret 7

This one couldn't even be bothered to move out of my way - it was that sort of a day!

1600 Knot today, just one flagged bird seen and it has been seen here earlier in the week.

Dunlin 1 with the Knot

Other waders as recent.

This Great Black-backed gull has a flounder.

Even with its considerable gape, a fish this size would be too wide to swallow when it was fresh. But it will have been working on it for a couple of days at least now, first opening it up and removing the guts then pecking it to open its flesh. They then leave it in the sea for the crabs and shrimps to weaken it further, returning next tide to see it if they can manage to swallow it. Today was the day!

South shore (Malcolm)

It was nice having a walk along the sea wall, but again, nothing new to see.

Reed Bunting and a Wren were the only passerines seen around the saltmarsh and foreshore.

Shelduck 12

Wigeon 126 were waiting for the tide to reach Red Nab.

Wigeon coming in to land by No.2 outfall.....

.........then heading towards Red Nab

Grey Seal 1 between the outfalls

Melanism, leucism and November dragonflies.

The light SE breeze continues. Overcast with sea mist for much of the day. The sun tried to break through mid afternoon and briefly raised the temperature from 9°C to 10°C.

Heysham skear - low water 09:30 (Malcolm)

No Brent geese turned up to feed in the skear corner today, but 3 Wigeon did. I've never seen any feeding here before, but it is understandable, there is lots of suitable weed to feed on this year.

Eider 2 males

Red-breasted Merganser 1

Great Crested grebe 1

I went down to see if any of the Knot were colour coded. There were more around today, over 2,500. Only three flagged birds were seen and just two of them read. Both had been seen here earlier. 

The (or a) melanistic bird was with them today, it is very hard to spot when it is resting, it is just like a shadow.

Melanistic (dark) Knot resting on the skear

Other waders as of late.

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Report by Alan:

Just two nets set this morning. There were a small number of single figure Redwing groups attracted but no Fieldfares.  A flock of 13 Woodpigeons flying purposefully southwards may have been migrants and a flock of c300 Pink footed Geese went south well to the East of the reserve.  There were fewer Blackbirds grounded also than of late.  However, 14 more Redwings were caught and ringed and another unringed Chiffchaff was also caught.

 

Redwing  14

Cetti's Warbler  2

Blackbird  2

Goldcrest  2

Chiffchaff  1

Reed Bunting  1

Bullfinch  2

Goldfinch  1

Wren  1

Blue Tit  1 + 1 retrap

Janet checked just after lunch.

A medium sized dragonfly was flying around the "no swimming" pond. Possibly a Migrant Hawker disturbed from wherever it was waiting for the sun to return.

Shoveler 2 a male and female type on the "no swimming" pond.

Shoveler 

I checked the two main ponds a little later (Malcolm). I couldn't relocate Janet's dragonfly but the Shovelers were still there. The female/immature kept her distance but the male was mobile allowing a nice close up,shot.

Male Shoveler

The Mute Swan pair and cygnet were on the "no swimming" pond again, with a solitary adult on the main pond.

Shoveler 2

Gadwall 21

Mallard 12

Tufted Duck 4

Teal 2

Coot 22

Moorhen 8

Little grebe 2 (one on each pond)

Boy's club - Gadwall, 2 Tufted and a Teal

South shore

Kevin set off at the only, brief, point in the day when the sun broke through, and spotted a medium to large dragonfly flying along the western edge of the saltmarsh. Unfortunately too distant for any detail, although no blue seen, and it quickly disappeared and couldn't be relocated.

A walk along the sea wall located.

Silver Y moth 3

I checked the foreshore and around the saltmarsh edges a little later.

Meadow Pipit 1 

Wasn't sure what it was at first sight as it had a broad white edge to its tail.....

......but it was just a leucistic tail feather

Wheatear 1 - another late bird.  

Not the one seen by Kevin a couple of days ago, which looked pale.

Just out of the recording area - the Horse Paddock behind Middleton Parish Hall

The Green Sandpiper was showing nicely

Brent geese begin feeding in the area

The low cloud, no sun and slight SE breeze continues.

Heysham skear - low water 08:45 (Malcolm)

I went out to see if the Brent were feeding in the SE corner of the skear, they were.

Pale-bellied Brent goose 8 

Pale-bellied Brent geese

Although feeding in the same location they were clearly two groups of four. This clip shows the ease at which they were lifting gutweed and sea lettuce from the shallow water. You can also see the weed on the exposed mud and stones.

There is plenty of suitable weed just here, and it tracks up the freshwater runoff for quite a distance up the skear. But there is very little on the rocks out from the children's play area and the rocks that join to them from the skear. It will be interesting to see how that affects their behaviour as they are moved on from the skear corner by the rising tide. Yesterday at least they left early, long before the tide had reached Red Nab.

Little Egret 6

Great Crested grebe 2

Red-breasted Merganser 3

Waders as recent, including at least 600 Knot

Redwing 1 - flew low SE across the skear towards Heysham Head.

Solitary Redwing on its way to Heysham Head

Heysham Head (Malcolm)

I checked out the cliffs to see if I could locate the Black Redstart, but if it was around it kept out of sight.

I took this shot from the skear this morning. The arrow points to the 
location of the labyrinth, where the Black Redstart was seen yesterday 

Redshank, Knot, Turnstone and an almost obscured Curlew

Eider 1 female type drifted in with the rising tide then back out again as it turned, never once lifting its head.

Grey Seal 1 fishing some distance out.

Grey Seal with a flatfish