Brents still obliging

A fresh west wind veered to the north after lunch. By evening the wind had dropped to almost nothing. Heavy and regular showers all day.

North Shore (Pete Crooks)

Dark-bellied Brent goose 2

Pale-bellied Brent goose 4

On this morning's rising tide, seen from Knowlys Rd

South shore (Malcolm)

A walk along the sea wall on the rising tide.

The Brent geese flew from the north side to Red Nab at 09:50. They didn't stay long on Red Nab as they had already moved on when I walked back. There is more sea lettuce high up the shore towards Potts corner, and only gutweed on Red Nab.

All six flew together, but still appeared to be two sub groups of 
two Pale-bellied with one dark bellied

Shelduck just 7 resting on the mud

Wigeon 180+

Little Egret 4

Grey Heron 2

Two Heron resting on the wooden jetty

This Cormorant was "playing" with a feather for over a minute 

Before finally deciding to let it go.

Lapwing 28 were resting on the mud out from the saltmarsh before heading south

Lapwing

Kingfisher 1 flew south across Red Nab then lost

A view showing Red Nab just as the tide was reaching it.
Also a typical view of today's weather.

Pink-Footed goose 1 smallish skein low to the south over my house 16:50 (Malcolm)

And then there were two

It remained dry with sunny spells till heavy showers began in the afternoon. A light west wind.

Red Nab to Saltmarsh towards morning's high water (Malcolm)

Pale-bellied Brent goose 4

Wigeon 160

Pale-bellied Brent geese and Wigeon

One of the Oystercatcher was ringed as part of an Icelandic ringing scheme.
Details awaited

Another "identifiable" Oystercatcher was this regular with a 
partially leucistic head

Linnet 16 and Reed Bunting 2 at the saltmarsh 

Reed Bunting showing off its tail feathers

Common Snipe 14 flushed by the rising tide

Knot 45 south

Most of the Wigeon moved to the saltmarsh, it was sheltered from wind noise here, so I took a clip to capture the males whistling.

Heysham skear (Malcolm)

I went down as the ebbing tide was exposing the skear this afternoon, unfortunately coinciding with the only heavy showers of the day!

Knot 1 small flock of c40 flying around

Dunlin 2

Little Egret 10

Most of the Little Egret were feeding on the south side of the skear today

Great Crested grebe 5 at least

Eider 3

Pale-bellied Bret goose 4

Dark-bellied Brent goose 2

When I was walking out (it was chucking it down!) there were just 2 pale-bellied and a dark-bellied in the SE skear corner. I had to walk past them then turn around with the rain to my back to get any pictures.

Dark-bellied Brent goose eating sea lettuce

A little later I noticed 2 pale and 1 dark-bellied on the sea,
 and assumed something had spooked them. But seemingly not.

The rain was relentless and so I called it a day, but fortunately I decided to walk back the same way instead of along the north side. In the SE corner now were 2 dark-bellied and 4 pale-bellied.

The two dark-bellied (far left and right) and three of the pale-bellied

The dark-bellied on the left had just seemed to notice the one on the right. It wasn't bothered about the pale-bellied there but was having nothing of the other dark-belled, and charged over to see it off!

These last two shots are poor quality, but they do convey the apparent vitriol
accompanying the attack. The vanquished bird settled 100m away and they both
resumed feeding. I returned home for an early bath!

First dark-bellied this autumn

Light rain pretty much all day. A fresher SW wind.

Just my stuff today (Malcolm)

Saltmarsh 

I watched this morning's tide cover the saltmarsh 

Common Snipe 13 flushed from the marsh and flew towards Middleton Nature Reserve. 4 more arrived from the NW settled briefly before moving on again.

Jack Snipe 2 flushed and both flew towards Middleton Nature Reserve 

Wigeon 202 

Linnet 5

Reed Bunting 3

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Just a quick check of the two main ponds on my way home.

Mute pair plus well grown cygnet 

Mallard 18

Gadwall 8

Tufted Duck 2

Teal 1 male

Swan and Gadwall upending 

The male Teal was feeding too.

Heysham skear

A walk out with the ebbing tide this afternoon. These spring tides go out quickly and I ended up at the western limit of the middle skear.

Little Egret 9

Great Crested grebe 6

Eider 1 male

Common Scoter 2 (male and a female/immature) feeding. They were very distant and kept diving. These record shots were the best I managed.

male Common Scoter

Female or immature Common Scoter

Wigeon 3 in the SE skear corner

Pale-bellied Brent goose 6 in SE skear corner.

Four of the Pale-bellied Brent and three Wigeon, feasting on sea lettuce

Dark-bellied Brent goose 1 - fortunately it had just stopped raining for a few minutes 

Originally on the sea on the south of the skear

It then flew to the north side of the skear and remained on the sea there

No Knot around this evening 

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