A bit of a black and white day

Almost no air movement today, what little there was from the north. Low cloud but dry.

Heysham skear - low water 14:00 (Malcolm)

Pale-bellied goose 46 minimum - I went down early in the tide as the SE skear corner was being exposed. 17 Brent were already there, then two more flocks joined them.

Brent geese coming in to land

You can hear their soft contact calls in this clip. As with most things today, I could have filmed this in black and white, and it wouldn't look much different.

This is the second flock coming in.

Red-breasted Merganser 5

Eider 30

Male Eiders

Great Crested Grebe 8

There are always several Cormorants around. This one shaking its feathers dry

Little Egret 2

Waders pretty much as recent, with the addition of 

Bar-Tailed Godwit 120 along the waterline out from Heysham Head. They arrived from the south in two similar sized flocks and one lot was still there when I was leaving.

Some of the godwits

Location of the godwits along the waterline out from Heysham Head

A check from Knowlys Rd in the afternoon located at least 60 Pale-bellied Brent geese

Janet's, now regular, evening encounter with the Foxes around Meldon Rd

Brent spreading out

A light NE breeze. Dry with hazy sunshine.

Heysham skear - low water 12:50 (Malcolm)

Pale-bellied Brent goose 30 minimum, but they were feeding all over the inner skear in small groups. There were likely more that I didn't spot. The difficulty was trying to get past them to the middle skear. So much easier when they feed in large groups. Presumably the high density of weed high up the shore has been depleted, but still lots of gutweed and sea lettuce spread around the inner skear.

Pale-bellied Brent geese coming in to land on a small pool in the 
middle of the inner skear

Eider 3

Red-breasted Merganser 3

No Great Crested grebe seen today.

Little Egret 3

Little Egret

Oystercatcher, Curlew, Turnstone as recent

Redshank c50

Knot c1,000 they lifted a few times, but I didn't see any raptors.

This Oystercatcher picked the Knot up, swung it out of its way then put
it down on the other side. Both then continued feeding

Several coded Knot were seen, but most had been seen here before.

This one is part of a scheme based in Iceland. Ringed as a breeding adult at 
Skógarnes Iceland 17/05/23. The only previous sighting was at De Richel,
Netherlands 2/10/23. First seen here 4/12/24

Dunlin c25 some with the Knot plus two "resident" with the inner skear Ringed Plover 

One of eight Ringed Plover

A pleasant, albeit short winter's day

The north wind had eased but it was still cool, despite plenty of sunny spells.

Andrew McCafferty and Clay Garland were at Heysham this morning. Report by Clay.

South sea wall, 9:30-11: 

Large flock of Knot (1000+?) roosting on the sand quite far out beyond Outflow 2. They lifted up at around 11 but I didn't see why, and they settled back down soon after.

24 Cormorant mostly on the sand beyond Outflow 1

c100 scattered Oystercatcher feeding around the sand either side of the outflows

About 20 Redshank and 10 Curlew among them

115 Wigeon mostly roosting on the rocks

Pair Red-breasted Merganser flew North

1 Little Egret at the base of Outflow 2

Heysham Head, looking out over the skear, 11:30-12:30:

81 Brent Goose - didn't notice any dark bellies among them

4 or 6 Red-breasted Merganser

1 or 2 Great Crested Grebe

Heysham skear - low water 11:40 (Malcolm)

Andrew and Clay did a better job than me at counting the Brent. I only managed 77, but you do get a good overview from Heysham Head. No dark-bellied seen today 

66 Brent in flight in this shot. They were feeding all over and along both 
edges of the skear

Male Red-Breasted Merganser

I only saw the single merganser, but saw at least 11 Great Crested grebe.

Wigeon 4

Eider 3

Distant Great Crested grebe and Eider.
Plus even more distant Piel Castle

There were about 1,000 knot in several small groups. But they merged briefly during two Peregrine Falcon attacks

Peregrine Falcon top centre, about to dive through the Knot Flock

There were a few colour coded Knot around, from UK and Dutch schemes.

One of the Dutch scheme Knot - details awaited 

Plenty of Brent today

A dry day with some sunshine in the morning, but a bitterly cold NW wind. Fresh at first but it eased during the day.

Report by Pete Crooks:

Knowlys Road, Heysham 09:15 – 83 Pale-bellied Brent Geese off the children’s play area, mostly in one flock, but 3, 3 and 5 (family groups?) separated from the main flock and easily overlooked.

Heysham skear - low water 10:30 (Malcolm)

When I arrived at 10:00 a large flock of Pale-bellied Brent geese had just landed in the SE skear corner. More were arriving in smaller groups, presumably they had been flushed from higher up the shore. The main area of sea lettuce in the skear corner remains out reach on these neap tides, so they quickly made their way back up the shore where there is a large patch is fed by a freshwater runoff.

I sat on a rock and watched them pass me by.

When I checked again as I was leaving, they had been joined by 2 Dark-bellied Brent geese.

This area high up the shore, where the Brent are feeding, is fed
by a freshwater runoff, and is currently lush with sea lettuce.

Dark-bellied (left) with Pale-bellied Brent geese

A big increase in Redshank numbers. 200+ including a flock of c180

Redshank

Eider 1 female

Knot c500

Knot hunkered down, out of the biting wind, behind a ridge of mussel shells 

I'd just got into position to check the Knot for rings when a Peregrine
(top right above the hills) lifted everything. The Knot didn't settle again

The light made for some striking views

One of three pairs of eyes Janet's head torch picked up at 
Meldon Rd this evening 

Something to look forward to

Very strong NW winds, but the rain largely held off during the day.

Heysham Nature Reserve 

A female Blackcap along the path south from the car park last Thursday - thanks to John Wood for this record.

The two red/blue ringed Pale-bellied Brent geese that have been recorded every winter at Walney since 2014/15, and every winter at Heysham since 2018/19, were seen again at Walney 2/12/24. Surely only a matter of time before they visit the Heysham area again this winter. It will be good to see them again!

The red marker shows where they were ringed as a breeding pair in 2014.
They breed high in the Canadian Arctic. It's an awful long way, and no sat nav!

Heysham skear - low water 09:30 (Malcolm)

There were no Brent today. Not really a surprise, not the best weather for flying and the richest sea lettuce beds are not exposed on these low neap tides. Still plenty further up the shore though. 

No Eider or Great Crested grebes seen

Red-breasted Merganser 9 - two groups of 3 and 6 were "arguing" in the NE skear corner. 

Some of the mergansers in the NE corner

Six flew off north into the wind

Three remained. They weren't doing anything worth filming, but I took a clip anyway, just to see if I could in these quite difficult conditions.

There were lots of Oystercatchers, probably over 2,500.

Several Curlew, 30+ Redshank, 50+ Turnstone, 6 ringed Plover.

Knot c1,000, there were some with flags. Reading them was almost impossible, mainly as I was bracing myself with the wind to my back, while the Knot were trying to face the wind, resulting in most flags pointing backwards behind them.

Knot facing the wind, an orange flag is pointing backwards 

I had to get at an angle to them to have any chance. All beaks to the wind.
I did manage to read this yellow flagged bird. The Knot flew south as the tide rose,
and I called it a day. Albeit a drier day than anticipated.

Middleton Nature Reserve (Malcolm)

Just a quick check of the two main ponds on my way home. The "no swimming" pond is now 2m above its normal height and deserted.

On the main pond

Mute Swan pair plus an immature 

Gadwall 13

Mallard 15

Tufted Duck 1

Coot 2

Grey Heron 1

Gadwall, Coot and a Tufted Duck

Female Tufted Duck

Heron with Mallard

Some interesting recovery news

Sunny spells with light winds till mid afternoon when a SE wind began freshening and heavy rain started.

Some of the 13 Shelduck out from Ocean Edge foreshore - Janet

Heysham skear - low water 08:40 (Malcolm)

Pale-bellied Brent goose 70 minimum.

These are just some of them feeding on the sea lettuce amongst the honeycomb worm boulders in the SE skear corner, nicely illuminated by the low morning sun.

Pale-bellied Brent geese 

Eider 3

Wigeon 2

Great Crested grebe 8

There were a few more Knot around today, c1,000. 

Knot, Dunlin and Oystercatcher 

Several were colour coded, details awaited. 

This is an interesting colour coded Knot. Seen here 29/11/24.  It was ringed in
the Netherlands  28/08/24 as part of a radio tracking scheme in the Wadden Sea
If you open the shot, you can see the antennae wire behind its tail

These are the comments from the Scheme Manager

I have looked at its departure from the Wadden Sea (see below). It left on 20 September towards 7 in the evening, not long after sunset, which is exactly what they normally do.

Map of its movements whilst within the Wadden Sea area

For more information regarding the WATLAS tracking scheme visit their website.

https://www.nioz.nl/en/about/cos/coastal-movement-ecology/shorebird-tracking/watlas-tracking-regional-movements

........and grow

It started clear then a morning mist came in with the tide. Rain began in the afternoon as the SW wind began to freshen. Heavy overnight wind and rain expected.

North shore

I checked the skear as the tide started coming in (Malcolm)

Waders as recent, including 750 Knot.

Knot and Oystercatcher 

Knot and Ringed Plover

Little Egret 6

Great Crested Grebe 2

Red-breasted Merganser 2

Eider 6

The Eider are feeding in this clip, or rather looking for food. A Great Crested Grebe makes a guest appearance.

After feeding the males tried a bit of courtship displaying, but the females were having none of it!

Pale-bellied Brent goose - there were at least 41 scattered all around the south side of the skear, feeding in small groups.

There is still loads of sea lettuce here

Later, Jean and Pete managed to count 61 from Knowlys Rd

Later still Janet took these shots of some in front of Knowlys Rd

One of two groups on the beach out from Knowlys Rd.
There is very little gutweed on these outer rocks this year.

Time to leave....

This shot was from Heysham Head, later still. Suggesting more had arrived.

Janet also took this shot and video of a fox by Meldon Rd this evening.