Good and not so good Brent news

A sunny day after a cloudy start, although there was heavy rain in the evening. A light south wind.

North shore

Janet checked out from the Sunnyslopes around high water and managed to read three Orange flagged Knot.

Knot

I checked the skear as the tide was ebbing (Malcolm). There were over 3,000 Knot until 500 left to NW after a Peregrine attack. They were feeding on shrimps, which meant their legs were in the water for much of the time. These are Knot and Redshank shrimping.

Shrimps are packed with protein and the Knot don't have to feed for very long periods. Instead they rested for long periods making finding any flagged ones difficult. Even so some new birds for this winter were seen.

Oystercatcher 1,500

Curlew 40

Dunlin 30

Redshank 250

Turnstone 35 - the Turnstone turned their nose up to shrimping and stuck to their tried and tested feeding technique.

Pale-bellied Brent goose 28 minimum, they were scattered all around the skear and some higher up the shore. The good news is that the two ringed Canadian arctic birds were with them. This is their first record on this side of the bay this winter.

Ringed as a breeding pair at Axel Heiberg Island Canada in 2014.
They have been seen at Heysham every winter since then. It's a long way!

Unfortunately this Brent is missing its left foot. Otherwise it looks
to be healthy enough

Eider 8

Wigeon 2

Wigeon and Brent geese

Miserable weather!

A strong SE wind with, almost constant, rain.

Time to reflect.

These are some shots of Knot at heliport earlier this week - Howard

Knot

Two of yesterday's Knot on the skear - Malcolm

Ringed in Holland in 2018. It has been seen here before in two previous 
winters. Recent history awaited

Ringed in Merseyside 08/05/24. It has been sighted in three Merseyside locations 
and more recently at Barrow in January. This is its first sighting here.

Middleton Nature Reserve (Malcolm)

Just a quick passing check of the two main ponds was all I managed today.

Main pond:

Mute pair (no immature with them)

Mallard 8

This Mallard had a strikingly orange bill

Tufted Duck pair

Gadwall 34

Teal 1 male

Coot 10

Moorhen 1

Some of the wildfowl, Mallard in the foreground, Gadwall,  Coot and
the Teal behind.

"No swimming" pond

Mute Swan 1 immature, but it wasn't mute! It kept calling wistfully, presumably now an unwilling outcast.  I tried to get a clip of it calling, but as soon as I got my camera out, it stopped calling, began feeding, and showed me its backside! 

Tufted Duck 1 male

Tufted Duck having a stretch

Coot 2

Little grebe 2 - one chased another halfway across the pond then both dived and presumably the pursuit continued under water. These are terrible shots of the leading grebe, but they do give a sense of the action.

Well.......it is a slow news day!

Just outside the recording area  - horse paddock behind Middleton Parish Hall (Malcolm)

Green Sandpiper

Also on/around the pool:

Mallard pair

Redshank 2 together

Tread carefully.......

A very pleasant day with plenty of warm sun to counter the cool south wind.

Caution!

The council have put a barrier around an "oil" spill on the shore near Half Moon Bay cafe. Seems odd, the tide won't have reached that far recently. Please avoid and advise anyone who walks their dogs in that area to take care.

Heysham skear (Malcolm)

I checked on the ebbing tide in the morning and another quick look as the tide covered the skear this afternoon.

No Brent geese seen in the morning.

Eider 14

Second calendar year Herring gull

I've never seen any gull feeding as daintily as this young Herring gull, so I took a clip.

Oystercatcher 2,000

Curlew 15

Redshank 70

Dunlin 30

Dunlin

Turnstone 35

Ringed Plover 6

Knot 1,200 - most were resting amongst the stones on the skear. Even so four new flaged birds for this winter were found. 

These very low neap tides are a double edged sword for waders. On the bad side, the tide never goes out far enough to expose their favoured areas, but the good side is that the tide never fully covers the shore, so there are feeding opportunities during all daylight hours.

Some of the Knot resting on the skear

So I returned later hoping the tide would push the Knot on to the beach, but only 50 arrived and none of them flagged. The remaining birds flew to NW in several flocks.

Knot on the beach south of the skear

Bar-Tailed Godwit 1

Pale-bellied Brent goose 51 - 8 were already on the skear when a further 43 arrived from further north.

Some of the eight Brent on the skear, these are having a drink in
a freshwater runoff

Some of the Pale-bellied Brent geese

Middleton Nature Reserve (Janet)

A Barn owl was hunting over the central marshes again and Janet managed these lovely shots before it crossed to the south side of the Reserve.

Barn Owl

Wind assisted tuft

A strong SE wind easing in the afternoon as it shifted to SW. just one heavy afternoon shower (guess who was in it!)

Oystercatchers feeding on the grass to the south of Whinnysty Lane yesterday - Kevin Singleton 

South shore (Malcolm)

I walked along the sea wall mid afternoon on the rising tide (just in time to catch the only serious shower of the day!). The wind was still strong and partly from the east, but after the squall it eased and was SSW.

Wigeon 120 on Red Nab

Shelduck 2 on Red Nab

Shag 1 in the harbour

Just a hint of a tuft, when the wind was behind it

I took this clip expecting it to dive but it just kept swimming, although it had clearly been feeding well (note the white cloud that appears in its wake).

It swam to the middle of the harbour, this shows its location. It stayed there
till a young gull swooped at it. It dived out of the way and was not seen again.

Cormorant, also in the harbour, and also sporting a wind assisted tuft.

It was at this point that the threatening dark clouds started delivering what they had threatened! Fortunately the lighthouse makes for a good shelter. What I saw as an inconvenience, this Rock Pipit saw a feeding opportunity. Don't know what on, and I wasn't tempted to go and investigate.

Curlew and Oystercatcher a steady movement south 

Grey Plover 1 had been resting on sea wall then south

Redshank 29 along the sea wall

Turnstone 5 along the sea wall.

There wasn't really anything feeding on the outfalls. There were lots of large gull hanging on the wind above the sloping sea wall. I didn't see a single Black-Headed gull, they were probably following a slurry spreader somewhere.

This is a telling shot. The sea is rough between the outfalls, but quite calm
Between No.1 outfall and the wooden jetty. This is the area where the 
Sandmason worms flourish, and this reduced disturbance is one of the key
reasons (coupled with the wash of nutrients the beach receives when ships 
enter and leave the harbour)

At least one Med lingered

A showery day, particularly in the morning. A freshening south wind.

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Some more shots from Janet yesterday evening.

Tufted Duck

The Gadwall were battling over partners

Blackbird

Heysham Skear low water 10:00 (Malcolm)

It rained throughout my walk!

Pale-bellied Brent Geese 3

Shelduck 2 singles south

Wigeon 2 males on the sea then north.

No Eider, merganser or grebes seen.

Oystercatcher 1,000

Curlew 30

Redshank 30

Knot just 8 (6, 1 and 1)

Turnstone 30

Dunlin 8 with

Ringed Plover 14 high up the shore.

I took this shot yesterday, the rocks in the background are the sea wall defences.
So this is the very edge of the inner skear. There are 10 ringed Plover and a
Turnstone in the picture. Without opening it you won't be able to see any!
Says something about their camouflage.

This is another shot from yesterday. These neap tides do not expose much
of the skear. These nine Carrion Crows had just chased off another six who
must have encroached on what they regard as their territory.

Imperial Rd (Malcolm)

I called in on my way home. It was still raining. The gulls spotted feeding yesterday by Jean were still there. But they were not feeding just resting and preening. There were two main groups.

Gulls in the field just beyond the road hedge

Another group in the next field east.

Mediterranean gull 1 adult seen in the nearer group. There was no obvious one in the further group.

Mediterranean gull centre with Black-Headed and Common gulls

I checked again after lunch when the rain had stopped. All the gulls had moved on, although the smell of slurry lingered!

South shore (Malcolm)

A walk along the sea wall early afternoon.

Shelduck 32 on Red Nab

Some of the Shelduck

Wigeon 100+ on Red Nab.

It started raining again, so I stashed my camera. This Cormorant caught a Bass, but in the time it took me to get my camera out it was just about swallowed.

Just the Bass' tail remained.......

........but not for long

More rain was on its way, and it arrived quickly 

I took shelter behind the lighthouse until the rain moved on.

I was just admiring a rainbow.......

.........when 41 Pale-bellied Brent flew from the north side

They flew along the wall and landed on Red Nab.
There was still plenty of weather approaching, so I headed back.