Plenty to see between the showers

Some very heavy showers, particularly in the morning. A light SW wind.

North Shore

The heavy morning showers tempted the waders to feed on the grass field between the play area and Whinnysty lane. Janet took these shots.

The Oystercatcher just left of centre has a worm

They all had dirty bills!

Oystercatcher, Turnstone and Redshank 
The smaller waders likely after any invertebrates disturbed by the Oystercatcher 

Redshank, with a clean bill

I checked Heysham shear on the ebbing tide (Malcolm)

No Brent geese seen.

Eider 65

Some of the Eider resting on a sandbar. 

Red-breasted Merganser 4

Male Red-breasted Merganser

Oystercatcher 1,500

Curlew 20

Redshank 150

Knot 700

Dunlin 20

Turnstone 25

Ringed Plover 2

Middleton Nature Reserve (Malcolm)

Just a check of the two main ponds.

Mute Swan pair now back on the "no swimming" pond where they nest. No sign of last year's youngster.

Gadwall 35 (2 on the "no swimming" pond)

Mallard just 7 on the main pond

Tufted Duck 4 - 2 each male and female on the main pond

Coot 10 (3 on the "no swimming" pond)

Moorhen 2 - 1 each pond

Little grebe 3 (1 on the "no swimming" pond)

Gadwall pair

Coot

These are the main pond Little grebes, just one in summer plumage.
The "no swimming" pond bird was also in summer plumage.

These are Tufted and Gadwall feeding.

Coot, Tufted, Gadwall and Little grebes.

Imperial Rd (Malcolm)

Just a passing check.

Barn Owl 1 dropped into the scrub to the north of the copse. I didn't see it lift again.

Mallard 4 and Teal 10 in a tiny pool just to the east of the road (visible only through the hedge)

Teal and Mallard

Wood Pigeon c90 roosting in the copse

Some of the Wood Pigeon

Doe Roe Deer

I have just been notified by a post reader that the videos didn't match the caption when first viewed. This is obviously a glitch in the software (although I am perfectly capable of uploading the wrong clip!). If what you see doesn't make sense please try a second time. Malcolm

Stonechat passing through

A dry day with sunny spells. A light west to SW wind.

North shore

Pale-bellied Brent goose 45 - David Kaye

I checked the skear on the ebbing tide this afternoon (Malcolm)

Some of the Brent were resting on the skear. The lower one on the right
is squatting not stood as the others. Possibly the bird with the missing foot?

A Peregrine attack lifted everything, at least all the Brent managed to
take off together

Eider 30

Female Eider

Great Crested Grebe 1

Oystercatcher 1,500

Curlew 40

Redshank 450 most were shrimping 

Knot 2700 including three new flagged birds for this winter.

This Knot was ringed in Inverness Scotland in 2023

Turnstone 40

Dunlin 30

Ringed Plover 2

Knot, Redshank and Curlew feeding. Note the Curlew, many text books
and information plaques along the promenade tell you that Curlew use their
long bills to probe deep into the mud. And of course they have that option.
But more often than not they use it to probe horizontally under rocks etc.

Today's conditions were perfect for the waders. The west wind brought
small shrimps into the shallows all around the skear. Plus we are moving 
back to spring tides now and areas of skear not exposed for a week are
available again. These are Knot flying out to newly exposed strips of skear.

Middleton Nature Reserve (Janet)

A late afternoon check failed to locate the Barn Owl. But this male Stonechat was near the turning circle on the road to the water treatment plant.

Stonechat

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