A morning gulp provided a bit of variety

Much milder with a fresh SSE breeze. Light rain showers in the morning then again by evening.

South shore (Malcolm)

I did the same walk as yesterday, and started at the same time (08:00). But the days couldn't have been more different. Yesterday it felt like someone had switched on a floodlight at sunrise. Today it remained gloomy all the while and almost constant fine rain.

Cormorant 83 headed south at 08:30 (the collective noun for cormorants is a gulp). Presumably something, a pretty significant something, had spooked them from their roost on the wooden jetty.

A gulp of Cormorants flying south along the waterline

The only waders out here today were Bar-Tailed Godwit, at least 700, plus c100 Knot. But they didn't stay long and also headed south.

Mainly Bar-tailed Godwit plus a few Knot heading south.

And that was it, the outer shore was deserted!

A little later a Peregrine Falcon was also searching for waders.
It flew south along the waterline but nothing lifted.

Closer inshore 

Dunlin 12 

Redshank 24

Lapwing 14

Oystercatcher 40

Curlew 3

Curlew on the saltmarsh 

There were 4 Carrion crow and 8 Magpies swooping towards and gathering beside a gap between the caravans. I thought at first they must be trying to flush a predator, but they weren't alarm calling. Perhaps it was just a feeding opportunity that they were all a bit wary of.

Magpies clearly focused on something. But I couldn't see anything 
when I reached this area.

Reed Bunting 3

At Red Nab

Cormorants 25 between Red Nab and No.2 outfall. Clearly they hadn't all flown south.

Wigeon 130

Shelduck 14

Pale-bellied Brent goose 19

Brent, Wigeon, Cormorant and Oystercatcher 

This clip shows the Brent geese cropping the already close cropped gutweed.

Knot, a decent day.

An overnight frost but not as cold as of late. A dry day with the odd sunny spell, but mainly overcast. A light SE breeze.

South shore (Malcolm)

I managed to get to the shore out from Ocean Edge a couple of hours before high water and walked the tide in (very quickly).

Pink-Footed Goose 680 in three waves of varying sized skeins all heading for their feeding grounds to the north.

Bar-Tailed Godwit 930. These are some coming in.

Knot 450, 7 coded birds were seen but not all close enough to read, but three schemes were involved. 4 from an Icelandic, 1 from a Dutch and 2 from an English.

The sun was just rising, its rays illuminating the Godwits at the back.
But not yet reached the front ones or the Knot feeding on the shore.

Sunrises here are seldom as splendid as the sunsets. But this one made an effort

Other waders feeding away from the shore:

Oystercatcher 100

Curlew 80

Grey Plover 11

There were also Dunlin but they consolidated to feed inshore later.

The incoming tide quickly covered the shore and the Godwits rested near the saltmarsh.

Mainly Bar-Tailed Godwit out from the saltmarsh. Last nights high water
reached the ice line seen here. This side of the line, the mud was still frozen.
Today's tide was higher and was about to cover this last frozen section.

Dunlin 600 - as the tide reached the frozen section above, all the Dunlin began feeding. As yesterday, I suspect they were finding invertebrates that had not survived the freeze and were now being released. You can see the tide lifting the ice from the mud.

Ringed Plover 9

Turnstone 5

Redshank 60

Redshank

Lapwing 72

Lapwing

Rock Pipit 1 on the south side of saltmarsh 

Reed Bunting 7 on saltmarsh 

A quick check of Red Nab

Pale-bellied Brent geese 17

Wigeon 150

Kingfisher not seen today, but it has been around.

This rock at the outlet from the freshwater runoff culvert is one of the 
Kingfisher's favoured spots. The two characteristic defecation streaks
shows that it has been used, at least within the past week.

Redwing in the Nature Park

Janet had a look a little later.

Wigeon

Pale-bellied Brent geese

Carrion Crow about to remove every last morsel from what remains 
of a likely Peregrine kill

Wren in the Nature Park 

And that's it from Janet for a couple of weeks. Off for a well earned break.

Near Naze/heliport (Howard)

Knot c1000 knot estimated when in the air on the approach to the naze, due to the flat calm condition and peak tide height the birds chose to roost on the far end rocks next to the old lighthouse base so reducing positive readings of coded birds.

Even so at least five coded birds identified, again from three schemes, but not including any seen earlier on the south shore.

Middleton Nature Reserve 

This shot and video from Angela Gillon

The open area that had been maintained by the Swans and ducks.

The freeze eased today, unfortunately the surface melt water made the ice more slippery, as the Mute Swans discovered when they headed for the feeding area.

Lots of godwits

After another freezing night, it was largely overcast but dry. A light east breeze.

First a few more shots of yesterday's Cattle Egret by Janet.

South shore (Malcolm)

I had a walk out onto the shore to the south of Ocean Edge. We are just moving back to spring tides and the mud high up the shore was still frozen solid as it has not been covered by the tide for a week. Today's high water had covered some of the shore that had been frozen. I started an hour after high water when the gulls and waders were feeding on the area that the tide had just thawed out.

This bird is flying over to join the feeding waders. It is a bird that you know.
A more diagnostic shot later in this post will reveal what it is, if you don't 
recognise it

There were 150 Black-Headed gulls feeding on the newly thawed strip of shore. Although it had been frozen, there were still invertebrates living below the surface. The gulls were forming small puddles by "paddling" then eating any invertebrates that surfaced. Meanwhile, the waders were picking up food from the surface, possibly invertebrates that didn't survive the freeze.

Some of the Black-Headed gulls along the strip where they were feeding.

Waders high up the shore:

Lapwing 70

Redshank 80

Dunlin 20

Ringed Plover 1

Also Shelduck 29

I seldom walk the tide out here, one of the reasons is that there isn't really a waterline. It is so flat that the water takes ages to drain. The waders further out were stretched for hundreds of metres, some feeding while others rested.

Bar-Tailed Godwit 700 minimum.

This clip begins on a resting group of Godwits, but they are still stood in water, what appears to be the waterline behind them is just the point where the water is deep enough to be rippled by the breeze. The clip then pans on some of the waders feeding in deeper water. Not all godwits but many are.

These are some of the more distant waders feeding.

Just two of the Bar-Tailed Godwits in the group resting in shallow water
were coded. Unfortunately, standing on one leg. This one provided a glimpse
of its other leg. Possibly not enough to identify it as the lower ring on its left
leg is at least partially underwater. Even so it is enough to identify the scheme
for both birds as the same Dutch one. 

Other waders feeding at the "waterline"

Curlew 120

Oystercatcher 100

Knot 250

Dunlin 100

Grey Plover 3

The light was interesting, reflecting off the flat mud and shallow water.

This Little Egret catches, what appears to be a Common Goby in a pool below the foreshore.

Did you identify the bird in the opening shot?
Coot - A familiar bird in an unfamiliar location.

 

Cattle Egret tops an interesting day

Another very cold night (-6°C) but it did climb to 3°C during the largely sunny day. A light east(ish) breeze.

An update from yesterday - 2 stonechat by the benches  on top of cliffs, Seawell Ave Heysham - Alan Physick

Pete checked the sea at low water from the north wall to Broadway. There was little about and most of that was north of the recording area. No Brent Geese seen.

Middleton Nature Reserve 

I checked first thing when temperatures were still sub zero (Malcolm)

The Mute and Ducks were down to just one open space.
There were a few gulls on the ice, but none with rings.

Common Snipe 1 dropped down from height and landed on the main pond peninsula.

Cetti's warbler 1 glimpsed as it flew from reeds on the main pond to nearby bushes.

There were pockets of open water amongst the reeds, but most was 
frozen with nice ice crystal formations 

Although I don't think the birds were overly impressed by the ice crystals. All the thrushes had their feathers puffed out to protect against the cold. This Blackbird has frost along its tail.

It looks cold, doesn't it!

And almost no Hawthorn berries for fuel

One of three Redwing

One of three Song Thrush

Jay 1 heard

Despite the cold, or possibly because of it (see how fit I am), there were three Great Tit defining their territories.

Janet Checked mid afternoon 

Cattle Egret 1 - only the second record for the recording area

It was resting on the north bank of the main pond......

........then flew over to rest on the east bank, possibly to catch more of the sun.

This fox was also soaking up the afternoon sun. It looks like its fleas were too!

This Common Gull has a yellow ring (48X)
One of a Danish scheme - details awaited

I returned in the evening (Malcolm). The sun was already below the immediate horizon. The ringed Common gull was still around but no sign of the Egret.

I counted the birds coming in to roost from the hill in the southern section of the reserve, although some had almost certainly arrived earlier.

Jackdaw 100+

Wood Pigeon 3

Stock Dove 38

Barn Owl 1 to begin with

Then later two owls

It was quite dark at this point, but both owls were hunting low over the 
ground and both looked to be Barn Owls (Malcolm)

Ringing (updates) in the New Year

Very cold (-5°C) overnight, but it crept up to +2.6°C during the day. Sunny and almost no air movement.

First a bit of ringing feedback.

Blackcap - ringed as  2cy male 4/01/24 in the Algarve Portugal.

Caught 16/09/2024  Heysham Nature Reserve - 1922km NNE

Middleton Nature Reserve (Malcolm)

Just a passing check of the main pond at first light. The Mute Swan family and a handful of ducks had managed to keep two small patches ice free.

The Mute Swan section.......

.......Mallard and Gadwall only

Heysham skear - low water 13:30 (Malcolm)

It was actually very pleasant on the skear this afternoon, although of course protected by several layers of thermals!

Pale-bellied Brent goose - none feeding but 7 (5+2) flew past to the north

Pale-bellied Brent geese heading further north.
I didn't see any gutweed on or around the skear today 

Eider 18

Red-breasted Merganser 5

Great Crested grebe 2

Little Egret 3

Grey Heron 1

Heron sticking its head above the skear edge.

Oystercatcher 1,500

This Oystercatcher was ringed as an incubating adult in southern
Iceland 4/06/23 and returned there to breed again last year.

Curlew 20

Turnstone 25

Redshank 130

Redshank looking for tiny shrimps 

Dunlin 20+

Dunlin

Knot just 170 in two groups, they had been attacked (successfully) by a Peregrine Falcon early on so perhaps some had already moved on. Isla Botting had joined me today and fortunately, despite the low Knot numbers, we managed to find a few flagged birds, from three different schemes.

But Isla's interests are diverse, and she managed to clinically collect several Knot droppings. These will undergo a thorough analysis to determine precise dietary details as well as details of the Knot themselves. But even a preliminary visual examination after they were in solution shows fragments of broken mussel shells. 

You can see the fragments of mussel shells. I had assumed that they would
be ejected as a pellet. But apparently Knot can modify their gizzard to best
break up whatever they are feeding on. The more detailed chemical and
 biological analysis will take many weeks.

Just outside the recording area - Heysham Moss Nature Reserve (Janet)

Pink-Footed geese heading for the nearby fields

Redwing

Female Roe deer