An excellent high water Knot roost plus a few Redwing around

Overcast, but only a couple of showers. A light SW wind.

Heliport/Near Naze high water 10:00.

Knot 2,500 roosting. A Peregrine attacked once and took a Dunlin.

Howard Stockdale and Richard du Feu carefully and thoroughly scanned the Knot and managed to identify an incredible 30+ coded birds.

If you ever go here to see the roosting Knot, it is very important to keep your distance and not spook them.  Not just so that more coded birds can be seen, but to help the Knot in their constant battle for survival. Spring tides in winter means that their feeding grounds are covered from mid morning to mid afternoon, leaving the Knot very little time to feed up for another long night. When they can't feed, they need to rest to conserve their energy.

I just checked a few locations this morning (Malcolm)

Red Nab towards high water.

Pale-bellied Brent goose 8

Wigeon 150

Pale-bellied Brent geese, Oystercatcher and a Bar-Tailed Godwit

Imperial Rd

Unusually, there were no raptors seen

Teal 11

Most of the Teal were on the west side of the road, but this female 
was on the east side 

Not in a large pond, just a puddle in the field

Redwing 4 at least in the trees that form the copse. More thrushes could be seen in the distant trees on the recording area boundary. So I drove around for a look.

These are the trees where the Rookery was located this spring.
Just across the road from the horse paddock behind Middleton Parish Hall

Redwing 12 - they were feeding on the ground in the horse paddock, easily visible from the recording area. Then resting in the above trees and the ones flanking the paddock.

Redwing

Also a Song Thrush

and a Meadow Pipit

Wood Pigeon 40+

All the above shots were taken from the edge of the recording area. This clip was actually from the Parish Hall car park. But only as it was a better angle to see the feeding Wood Pigeon and Redwing.

Middleton Nature Reserve 

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

Main Pond

Mute Sawn Pair plus immature 

Mallard 27

Gadwall 17

Tufted Duck 1

Coot 4

Moorhen 2

Male Tufted Duck

A bit of colour on a grey day

Low cloud all day light rain on and off. Calm to very light variable breeze.

Red Nab to saltmarsh - high water 09:15 (Malcolm)

Pink Footed goose 325 north at 08:30 (a large flock flew south over my house this evening at 16:45).

Pale-bellied Brent goose 30 on Red Nab. These are some of them, this clip is at high water. At 8.8m the tide normally moves the brent off here. But there were no waves and no one around, so they remained. This clip is really to demonstrate the clamour here as the tide covers the ricks.

Shelduck 4

Wigeon 150

Shelduck, Wigeon, Curlew and Oystercatcher 

Wigeon, Oystercatcher and Redshank

Heron and Redshank

Cormorants

Little Egret 3

There were also a few Turnstone and two flocks of Knot totalling 1,500 flew towards Potts Corner.

Kingfisher 1 - it zipped across Red Nab, I barely managed a shot

A terrible shot, but it does emphasise its speed. I was panning so quickly 
that the background is a blur. Even so I only just got it in the frame.

This is looking back at Red Nab from the foreshore. You can see the sea wall
and the outfalls. All the above birds are still there at this point, but it wasn't to last!

Saltmarsh 

Reed Bunting 3

Dunnock 2 (slightly unusually they were keeping together)

Common Snipe 1

This is looking out from the saltmarsh, the black specks in the background 
are Brent Geese and Oystercatcher flying from Red Nab. Something (someone)
must have disturbed them

Heysham skear - low water 16:00 (Malcolm)

Pale-bellied Brent goose 49 minimum (almost certainly including this morning's 30).

These higher tides allow the sea lettuce in the SE corner to be available 

But they didn't feed there for long, the lettuce stocks must be depleted. There is still lots of gutweed all over the skear and that's what this group was feeding on as I left.

Eider 77

Eider drake in breeding plumage 

One of several groups of Eider

Red-breasted Merganser 8

Red-breasted Merganser pair

Great Crested grebe 10

Little Egret 2

No godwits seen today and only c300 Knot. Other waders as recent.

Pretty much the same stuff, but still interesting.

Another day of very light north breeze and low cloud.

Heysham skear this afternoon- low water 15:00 (Malcolm)

Pale-bellied Brent goose at least 28 feeding in small groups all across the inner skear. Occasionally a group would fly around, presumably spooked by someone, 28 was the biggest group,I saw flying at one time.

Some of the Brent having a fly around 

Eider 15

Red-breasted Merganser 5

Great Crested grebe 4

Little Egret 4

Oystercatcher, Curlew, Redshank, Knot, Turnstone, Dunlin and Ringed Plover all present in similar numbers to recent.

Bar-Tailed Godwit 21 - 20 rested along the waterline below Heysham Head and a lone bird on the skear.

Bar-Tailed Godwit with Oystercatchers

We are moving back to spring tides now, the outer skear was becoming 
exposed for the first time in a week, and the waders were keener than me
to get out there. Curlew, Bar-Tailed Godwit, Redshank, Oystercatcher
and Knot in this shot

A few of the colour coded Knot were read. This is quite an interesting one from yesterday.

Ringed in the Netherlands April 2019. It was seen at Walney in December 2020.
Then not seen again till February this year back in the Netherlands 
I wonder how many Peregrine attacks it has evaded in that time!

Curlew, Knot and Oystercatcher 

Perhaps why Janet regularly sees foxes in the evening on Meldon road
Highlighted by her head torch

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