More Stonechats

A dry day with sunny spells. A south to SW wind.

Heysham skear - low water 08:40. (Malcolm)

Pale-bellied Brent goose 26

Pink-Footed goose 50 SE and 23 N

Eider 45

Red-breasted Merganser 3

Great Crested Grebe 2

Oystercatcher 1,500

Curlew 20

Redshank 80

Knot 2,500+ I went down at low water hoping that some of the Knot would be feeding on the middle skear. But once again they were all on the outer skear and only 250 eventually moved closer inshore when the tide moved them.

There were at least two attacks. You can't see the raptor (probably Peregrine) in the clip, but you can see the Knot's reaction as wave after wave runs though the flock as each Knot tries to position itself as far from the danger as possible. 

The Knot settled again after each attack, I didn't see which direction they eventually left.

Brent geese, Oystercatcher and Knot feeding in the SE skear corner

This corner had a healthy growth of sea lettuce and gurweed early in the winter, but all that remains now are the odd wisp. But this corner also traps any broken weed pushed in by the tide. But that too is thin on the ground at the moment, as we haven't had a recent storm to break up the weed. Still, always worth a look!

Dunlin just 4 seen high up the shore with

Ringed Plover 6

Turnstone 20

Shag 1 juvenile feeding out from Heysham Head. David Kaye this morning.

South shore (Malcolm)

Just a check from the saltmarsh to Red Nab an hour after high water.

Saltmarsh 

Common Snipe 8 individual birds were flushed from high up the saltmarsh edges as I walked around.

Reed Bunting 2

Linnet 15

Stonechat at least 2.

A female was feeding by herself along the saltmarsh edges
Then into this bramble

This is a different bramble further along with both a male and female Stonechat 

Wigeon 80

Rock Pipit 1 along the foreshore 

Just Wigeon on Red Nab, including some that had left the saltmarsh. No sign of any Brent geese.

Imperial Rd (Malcolm)

I just had a drive along on my way home as this area also attracts Stonechats, but none seen today.

Barn Owl 1 - it was hunting near the gates to the recycling centre. It was being mobbed by Carrion crows and the commotion lifted several Mallard.

Barn Owl flying through recycling centre gates.

The crows hounded it and it moved to hunt nearer the bypass. As I was driving back it flew east across the road.

Kestrel 2 females also hunting.

Female Kestrel having a rest. It seems a dangerous area to be a rodent.
But the rodents must be doing well to attract the predators in the first place.

Chiffchaffs arrive!

A mild night followed by a morning shower. After that dry with sunny spells. A light SW wind.

South shore 

Kevin checked first.

Pale-bellied Brent goose 26 on Red Nab

Chiffchaff 1 singing along the dog walking path (presumed migrant by behaviour - first of the spring)

Kevin also spotted Janet and told her where the Chiffchaff was, and when she looked, she found two!

Chiffchaff in and around the fir trees near the white barrier into 
the Nature Park

Also in this area 

Goldcrest 2

Long-Tailed Tit small feeding flock

Goldcrest

Long-Tailed Tit

Another sign of Spring - a Toad waiting for a mate in the pond in 
the Nature Park.

Wigeon arriving at Red Nab

Some of the Brent on Red Nab

North shore.

My check as the tide covered the skear coincided with the only shower of the day (Malcolm)

Pale-bellied Brent geese 20 minimum

Eider 60+

Red-breasted Merganser 10

Red-breasted Merganser

Great Crested Grebe 2

Little Egret 2

Oystercatcher 1,500

Curlew 25

Redshank 150

Knot c2,000 (c1,500 flew west, 300 and 250 along the shore)

Dunlin 60

Turnstone 30

Howard checked the heliport towards high water, once again no sign of any Knot. This was interesting though. It is the Icelandic ringed Oystercatcher seen several times this winter.

It seems to like this location on the waterline at the edge of the flock, it was
there the last time I recorded it in February, it has lost it's collar since then.

A wild goose chase........it didn't end well

A dry but largely overcast day. A light south wind.

North shore (Malcolm)

I checked around the skear on the rising tide.

Pale-bellied Brent goose 30 at least. 

These Brent are the wild geese in today's title.

Today's high tide was 10.3m. That's just about as high as they get. Needless to say the water was gushing in, but there was one visitor who was determined to get close to the geese you can hear their calls as she approached, but they knew that they were safely out of reach. This spit disappears in the 30 second of this clip.

There was no other option she had to take to the water.

She swam against the tide, but it was rushing in and pushing her further and further from safety. This clip shows just how far out she was by this time.

If she had drowned, today's title would have said "ended badly". The tide pushed her into an eddy where she managed to swim towards safety, and 10 minutes after she entered the water a very tired vixen dragged herself out again. But she was walking so slowly she was barely fast enough to outpace the tide.

Her problems were far from over though, wet and exhausted she had to

find her way back to safe cover. 

Presumably she is from Heysham Head, there was only a narrow corridor to there now and that was busy with Sunday morning dog walkers. After a brief rest she set off, and the lack of any commotion when she was out of sight suggests that she avoided any further detection.

Caution - This could have ended up a lot worse, not just for the fox. I have many years experience of the tides here. Even so, I had to constantly check and move to ensure that I had a safe high route back, otherwise I would have been in the same boat, but without a boat! (Malcolm)

Apart from that it was uneventful:

Oystercatcher 1,000

Curlew 15

Redshank 40

Knot 2,000 flying around in all directions, presumably there had been some raptor attacks.

Dunlin 60

Turnstone 25

Middleton Nature Reserve (Malcolm)

Just a quick check on my way home.

Mute Swan pair on the main pond

Mallard 3

Gadwall 24 on main pond 3 on "no swimming" pond

Tufted Duck 3

Tufted Duck with Gadwall

Teal 2 flew over

Coot 7 on the main pond 3 on "no swimming" pond

Little grebe 2 on the "no swimming" pond

Cetti's warbler 1 singing from the northern end of the "no swimming" pond.

Knot there!

A dry and often sunny day. A light variable breeze.

North shore:

Pale-bellied Brent goose 37 - David Kaye

I checked on the shore on the rising tide (Malcolm)

There were no Knot along the waterline this morning. A couple of Peregrines turned up and set about the Redshank higher up the shore. The commotion spooked the Brent.

Some of the Brent geese

This clip shows the Brent circling away, but it is really about the Peregrine, you can hear them calling above my head.

The sky was quite pearlescent as the sun was breaking through.
These are 27 Pink-Footed geese heading north. 2 others flew south

Eider 30

Oystercatcher 1,000 - many more were along the waterline to the south of Heysham Head

Curlew 20

Redshank 120

Knot - none were moved off the skear by the tide. A small group of 60 were briefly along the waterline.

Unusually for such a small group it included 2 Dutch ringed birds

1,500 Knot were seen distantly flying to the south, then later a group of 400 landed amongst the rocks below the Sunnyslopes groyne.

Turnstone 35

Turnstone 

Dunlin 30

Dunlin

Howard checked the Heliport, but that too was devoid of Knot today.

This lovely shot is from Thursday when 4,000 Knot roosted at the Heliport 

It's nice to see such large numbers, and that is the whole point of these flagging
schemes. To identify locations and habitats critical to the birds, so that they can be
protected for future generations. Generations of birds, and people to enjoy them.
You can imagine the difficulty of checking this crowd for any flagged birds.
But you can see a Dutch scheme bird stood on the wall.

Howard did find today's roost, just beyond the recording area on the marsh at Middleton Sands.

c3,000 Knot coming in to land on Middleton marsh

A silver sea

A dry day but misty till mid afternoon, then quite warm and sunny. Very light variable breeze.

North shore (Malcolm)

Two checks again, morning on the flood tide and afternoon on the ebb.

It was strange light both visits, the flat sea was silver until the sun broke through this afternoon.

Mist rolling over Heysham Head this morning 

Pale-bellied Brent geese 37 was the most seen at one time, but they were scattered all around in small groups.

Pink-Footed goose 45 SE in the afternoon 

Eider just 20 in the morning, but an impressive 188 in the afternoon, partly as the flat sea allowed all the distant ones to be counted.

Distant Eider on a silver sea 

The skear in this afternoon's unusual light - Brent geese in the foreground 

Brent geese and Eider after the sun broke through 

Little Egret 2

Oystercatcher 2,500

Curlew 20

Redshank 120 (no shrimps close in today as the sea was so calm)

Knot 2,000 including some new flagged birds.

This Knot is part of a scheme based at the Wash, Norfolk - details awaited
It is just swallowing a small bivalve mollusc 

This Merseyside scheme bird has one of the molluscs in its bill

Dunlin 44

Dunlin

Turnstone 25

Ringed Plover 4

Grey Plover 1

Grey Plover with Knot

A good Knot day (at least for those that survived the day!)

A very pleasant and sunny day. A light west wind.

It was brought to my attention yesterday that sometimes the video links in this post open an unrelated video (from the previous day). Hopefully this software glitch will be resolved, meanwhile, if you open a clip and it isn't what it says it is going to be, refresh and hopefully you will link to the correct clip (Malcolm)

North shore

I watched the incoming tide cover the skear this morning (Malcolm)

Pale-bellied Brent geese 49

Pink-Footed goose 7 east

Eider 5

Red-breasted Merganser 1 female

Great Crested grebe 1

Little Egret 2

Oystercatcher 3,500 including birds along the waterline which I don't normally include in my counts of skear birds.

Curlew 20

Redshank 250

Turnstone 30

Dunlin 15

Ringed Plover 4

Knot 2,500 moved off the skear and on to the shore, but were almost immediately attacked by two Peregrines. One made a kill straight away, the other chased the birds further south beyond Heysham Head.

These spring tides come in very quickly, they are called spring, not after the season, but it relates to the force of the water "springing forth". Like this:

Heliport - report from Howard:

I visited the heliport this morning 2 hours before peak tide and the helipad was full of knot c4000, the corvids put them up a couple of times which was welcomed to move them round.

Some of the many flagged birds read by Howard today

I returned to the skear this afternoon as the tide was equally quickly draining off the skear (Malcolm).

At least 3,000 Knot returned to feed. Mercifully there were no further Peregrine attacks. And I also managed to read a good number of flagged Knot. It isn't as easy as Howard's lovely shots make it look. There is a flagged Knot feeding in the very soft mud in this clip.

And when you get a clear shot of it......it's as clear as, well....mud!

This Turnstone has a metal ring (no sign of any colour rings on tibia)

39 Brent geese returned

Some of the 85 Eider

South shore - Shaun Coyle

Red Nab at 12:30. 

PB Brent Geese 47 

Wigeon 204.

Ringed Plover 7

Turnstone 14 at Outfall 2.

Single Rock Pipits at Red Nab and at the Roundhead.

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