A lighter moment

Another misty start, then light rain, but it faired up in the afternoon (there were even rumours of the odd glimpse of blue sky!). Almost no breeze, what there was came from the south.

Heysham skear - low water 11:00 (Malcolm)

Pale-bellied Brent geese 18 minimum, of which 15 flew to the north after feeding a while.

The gutweed that remains on the skear is far from lush, just the patches on
some of the stones and rocks.

They were feeding in small groups of twos and threes. Two in the foreground here with more further away.

Two of the Brent heading off to the north. That is Knowlys Rd in the background 

Pink-Footed goose 2 very low to the south

Red-breasted Merganser 2

Eider 54, again, most leaving to the north.

These were feeding in shallow water, it isn't clear what on.

Meanwhile, these were on the banking. One male has a tentative peck at another, before going back to tell his mates how hard he is! The sticks in the background are all that remain of the old fish traps.

Great Crested Grebe 2

Two of several "resident" Carrion Crows. These were stripping
barnacles from the rocks

Oystercatcher 1,500

Curlew 2

Redshank 250

Knot just 9 flew south

Ringed Plover 4

Turnstone 25

Turnstone

South shore (Malcolm)

A pleasant afternoon stroll along the sea wall.

Redshank 54 resting on No.1 outfall.

Redshank

Shelduck 14

Wigeon 322

Some of the Wigeon making their way to Red Nab

There were smaller groups along the wall including a group of 11 near the wooden jetty. This group also consisted of a female Mallard. 

Although, in truth the group of Wigeon were concentrating on feeding and didn't exactly welcome the Mallard. Pretty sure that they thought that the Mallard was quackers (sorry!)

Female Mallard

Gloomier and wetter........and the weather wasn't much better!

Another misty day with almost constant rain. A SE breeze.

South shore 

I checked the waterline on the incoming tide this afternoon (Malcolm). For a while the only company I had were 

Oystercatcher 120

Curlew 6

Then it became exciting......

Dunlin 2 flew south

Knot 4 turned up and began feeding. 

They were finding small bivalve molluscs in the mud.
This Knot is just swallowing one whole.

The second Knot in this clip, and I think the one right at the end of the clip, finds one of the molluscs.

By the time I was approaching the foreshore the rain had finally stopped and the Knot flock had swollen to 21.

Bar-Tailed Godwit 3

Closer to the saltmarsh 

Redshank 30

Bathing Cormorant with Redshank behind

Shelduck 10

Shelduck 

At Red Nab

Pale-bellied Brent goose 14 at least

Some of the Brent geese

Wigeon 100+

Flock of Goldfinch in the Nature Park 

Kevin had a walk along the sea wall

There were a pair of Peregrines displaying over the power station and a Grey Plover showing well on no.1 outfall.

The Green Sandpiper was easily visible from Middleton Road as it stood, looking dejected, in the field next to the horse paddock behind Middleton Parish Hall

Green Sandpiper, its posture summing up the day

Gloomy.......and wet!

Misty with intermittent light rain all day. A light SE breeze.

Heysham skear - low water 09:25 (Malcolm)

It was misty and raining, it didn't look promising and it lived up to its lack of promise!

No sign of any Brent geese, but we are moving back to neap tides now and low water didn't go out far enough to expose what little weed there still is in the SE skear corner.

Eider 15

Wigeon 4

Red-breasted Merganser 9

Female and male Red-breasted Merganser

When the sea is flat calm like this, you can follow the whereabouts of the mergansers when they are underwater. Quite a long clip this, but for most of the time there is little to see except for the telltale surface disturbance where the mergansers are foraging.

Great Crested Grebe 3

Oystercatcher 1,500

Curlew 25

Curlew and Oystercatcher 

Redshank 80

Knot just one small flock of 22

Turnstone 25

Dunlin 5 with the Knot plus 2 more higher up the shore with

Ringed Plover 8

South shore (Malcolm)

Just a walk from Red Nab then half way along the sea wall towards high water.

Pale-bellied Brent goose 23 flew to Red Nab from the west, possibly from the north shore, or possibly directly from the west side of the Bay.

Brent geese flying over the wooden jetty

Wigeon 293 - a big increase from yesterday.

Some of the Wigeon flying in

Interestingly, both the Brent and the Wigeon immediately began feeding on the very short cropped gutweed in the middle of Red Nab. They normally work their way in from the periphery as the tide rises. The only difference today was the rain, the wetting of the weed with freshwater must make it either more appetizing or perhaps just easier to crop.

Cormorant near the sea wall.

Grey Seal 1 also close to the sea wall near No.2 outfall.

Grey Seal

Gloomy.......again!

A cold misty day. A light SE breeze.

Middleton Nature Reserve main pond (Malcolm)

Mute pair plus 1 immature.

The immature bird starting to display the grace associated with swans 

Mallard 25

Gadwall 31

Moorhen 2

Little grebe 1

South shore (Malcolm)

I walked out to the waterline from Ocean Edge.

Shelduck 5

Wigeon 3 

Eider 2

Eider pair with Dunlin on the shore

Waders on/near the waterline

Oystercatcher 50

Curlew 30

Bar-Tailed Godwit 2

Grey Plover 23

Knot just 8

Dunlin 500

This shot taken at 12:00, the lights on the StenaLine a testimony to today's title 

Dunlin, Knot, Grey Plover and Oystercatcher.
The south sea wall in the background 

Dunlin and Grey Plover coming in to land

Grey Plover, Knot and Dunlin.

I normally think of Grey Plover out here as being sedate, but today they were quite animated. This, combined with the grey monotone gave the impression of the old black and white, silent movies.

Redshank 66 near the saltmarsh 

There were no Knot seen on the skear earlier.

Pete Checked the heliport roost and there were none there either.

Pale-bellied Brent goose c11 on Red Nab

Other stuff from today's WeBS - Jean

9100 Oystercatchers on the heliport sea wall. 

162 Wigeon at Red Nab. 

51 Cormorant on the wooden jetty. 

Another grey day of diminishing returns

Another overcast but dry day. A light south wind.

Heysham skear - low water 08:20 (Malcolm)

Pink-Footed goose, several skeins heard above the low cloud. This small skein dropped below the cloud line to get their bearings.

Pink-Footed geese

Pale-bellied Brent goose 18 were foraging around the SE skear corner at low water, they started moving high up the shore later

Some of the Brent geese and Oystercatcher in the skear corner

Eider 17 - 12 flew to the north while 5 remained feeding in the distance 

Wigeon 2

Oystercatcher 1,500

Curlew 40

Redshank 150

Turnstone 10

Knot 180 - two small flocks of 60 and 80 were flying around. Then they merged, gained height and flew off to the north. Only a flock of 40 remained to feed, none of them coded.

Knot and Oystercatcher 

In contrast these are some of the Knot from Thursday, when the sun shone and the Knot were plentiful.

To be fair, even in such good conditions you seldom get to see Knot as close as this. The incoming tide was pushing them up the shore while they probed the mud for small molluscs. Meanwhile I was waiting with the low morning sun behind me. The two orange flagged Knot above take centre stage in this clip.

I haven't much time again tomorrow and conditions look to be similar to today. But one of the beauties of Nature is that you never know for sure what lays ahead.

A day to reflect

A mainly overcast but dry day. A cold SE breeze.

First some shots from Kevin Singleton, taken by the Cafe area at Half Moon Bay yesterday, when the sun shone!

Curlew

Lapwing 

House Sparrow 

Heysham Skear (Malcolm)

I didn't have much time today just a quick check as the tide was covering the skear this morning.

Pink-Footed Goose 9 west

Pale-bellied Brent Goose 11 at least feeding in ones and twos between the rocks to the north of play area and the SE skear corner.

Two of the Brent in the skear corner, a shot that nicely conveys today's conditions!

Eider 13

After yesterday's success in finding and reading coded Knot, today was a total failure. There were about 300 flying around as I was walking out, but they gained height and headed off to the north. 

These seven Knot were all that remained!
The one on the right trying the vegetarian option.

Oystercatcher 1500

Curlew 40

Turnstone 30

Ringed Plover 7

Redshank 150 - one was taken by a Peregrine Falcon, possibly why the Knot had moved on.

We have done well this winter with the coded wader schemes. It provides the scheme organisers valuable movement and behaviour information, and also can provide some unexpected insights......

This Bar-Tailed Godwit was on the south shore earlier this week. 

Unfortunately, there are two more rings on its other leg required to identify a specific bird, and it never revealed them. But with just the flag and rings seen the scheme manager was able to make these observations.

Combinations starting with Y1WY were used in the Wadden Sea Holland in 2001 and 2002, so this is an old bird, the last observation of one of these codes starting with Y1WY was in 2016. There is an observation of Y1WYBR at Glasson on 14 November 2010. This could very well be this bird, but it would be nice to have a confirmation.

So, this Godwit is at least 23 years old! None of its contemporaries have been seen for 9 years. It goes without saying that several parties would love to know the complete history. Any information about any further sightings would be very welcome. Either directly to the scheme or via any of the observatory team - see sidebar for contact information.

South Sea wall (Kevin)

Pale-bellied Brent goose 20 on Red Nab (these will include this morning's birds)

Red-breasted Merganser 1 in the harbour mouth.

Howard took these splendid shots of a female merganser feeding at the Near Naze earlier this week. Possibly the same birds as seen by Kevin today.

Red-breasted Merganser with a Common Blenny

Soon polished off!

Plover surprise

An overnight frost followed by a bright sunny day with very light variable breezes.

North Shore (Malcolm)

I went out to watch the inner skear being covered by the tide, then ended up following the Knot to the beach out from the play area.

Pink-Footed goose 25 east

Pale-bellied Brent goose 23 - they had been feeding amongst the outer rocks beyond the play area, but there is precious little gutweed for them there. This is some of them heading for the sea.

Pale-bellied Brent goose

Eider 14

Knot 800 were moved on from the skear by the incoming tide. 100 flew north and 700 began feeding on the shore out from the play area. The tide was covering the shore quickly now and the Knot and Oystercatchers were constantly on the move.

Eventually they were running out of shore and called it a day.

If you open the above shot and look closely, you can see that there is only one orange/green coded bird. Nevertheless, I did locate others and three new records for this winter were found.

Golden Plover 2 - I cannot recall seeing one on the north side of the harbour before.

Golden Plover, with Knot

Grey Plover 1 flew north from the skear

Dunlin 30

Redshank 40

Oystercatcher 900

South shore 

Alan Physick took this location shot of a Grey Seal near No.2 outfall
with his mobile, it is exactly where it was feeding on Tuesday 

Pale-bellied Brent geese 16 feeding on Red Nab (almost certainly some of this mornings birds) - Kevin

Alan, Kevin and myself (Malcolm) checked the firs near the white barrier where the Firecrest was reported yesterday. There was a lot going on with two visits of mixed tit flocks (mainly Long-Tailed). And at least two Goldcrest, but no Firecrest seen today.

Goldcrest

Middleton Nature Reserve (Malcolm)

An "evening" check from the south side to watch any birds coming in to roost.

Jackdaw 120+

Wood Pigeon 12

Stock Dove a significant reduction to just 10

No sign of the Barn Owl(s) this evening 

Before checking the south side I had a quick look at the main pond

A young Roebuck on the north bank

It was nibbling any early buds off the low trees.

The Mallard Numbers have returned to pre freezing levels. 28

Little Grebe 1 also returned 

And we end today, as we did yesterday, with a grebe on red water