Plenty of Snipe

After a bit of a misty start, the sun broke through quite early, and despite the gloomy forecast it was a bright sunny day, till a huge fog bank rolled in off the sea at 15:00.

Red Nab to saltmarsh (Malcolm)

Roe Deer 2 -  I had to stop on Moneyclose Lane until 2 juveniles managed to climb through the fence back into Heysham Nature Reserve 

I went to watch the tide partially cover the saltmarsh so I was a bit late arriving at Red Nab.

5 Pale-bellied Brent geese were just leaving towards Potts corner

Wigeon 120+

Rock Pipit 1 on the foreshore - first one seen here for some time.

Rock Pipit

Linnet 16 and Reed Bunting 3 around the saltmarsh 

This is high water today, at 9.4m it only half covered the saltmarsh. Even so
it flushed a lot of snipe. Tomorrow's 9.7m will cover more. Unfortunately tonight's
tide is higher and most of the birds will be flushed and many won't return immediately.

Common Snipe 56 

Some of the Snipe lifting off the saltmarsh, they all eventually 
headed east towards Middleton Nature Reserve 

Common Snipe

Jack Snipe 1 probably 2 

This Jack Snipe flew and landed back on the saltmarsh, later another
flew from a different location towards Middleton Nature Reserve 

Heysham Skear (Malcolm)

I checked early in the ebbing tide. When I walked out it warm and sunny, but that was about to change!

Pale-bellied Brent goose 10 in the SE corner of the skear

Brent geese making their way to the skear corner

Eider 4

Creat Crested grebe 9 at least

Grey Heron 2

Little Egret 15

The tide was ebbing quickly, concentrating shrimps and small fish in the drainage channels. The Herons, Egrets and gulls were similarly concentrated trying to catch them.

Waders similar to of late, but only c1,000 Knot seen. One new flagged bird was read.

There is always a significant Carrion Crow presence out here, and they
are not just scavenging. This one is prizing off a small mussel

And eating it whole. Possibly leaning this from the gulls feeding on the 
seed mussels earlier in the summer

It had been a very pleasant walk, my coat was off and wrapped around my waist, but it was growing cold and dark very quickly, the forecast fog was late and clearly in a rush to catch up!

Heysham Head disappearing 

Not a sunset this afternoon, just the sun being..... "blotted out from the sky".

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