First butterfly

A very warm and dry sunny day. The temperature peaked at 16° at 14:30. A fresh SE wind.

Heysham skear - low water 10:00 (Malcolm)

I set out early in the ebbing tide and followed it out.

No sign of Brent or Pink-Footed geese, but...

Canada Goose 1 flew south

Canada goose

Eider only 4 seen

No Merganser or Grebes seen.

I went out early for a better chance of checking the Knot for any flagged birds. We are quickly moving back to neap tides, but today's tide still drained quickly. This causes small shrimps to become stranded in shallow pools and wet mud, where they burry themselves and wait for the tide to return. 

3,000 Knot were on the skear and they had other ideas about what should happen to the stranded shrimps.

It was very nice seeing so many Knot, but very difficult checking many of them for flags when they are feeding like this.

Grey Heron with Knot, Oystercatcher and a Redshank.
There were also two Little Egrets

There was only one Peregrine attack this morning, and the Knot quickly resettled, which tends to mean the attack was successful and the Knot "know" the Peregrine won't need to return for a while. So at least I had plenty of time and ended up with a good tally of flagged birds including at least six new to the skear this winter.

This one is part of a Norwegian scheme

This is a UK scheme bird, almost certainly new for the skear this winter,
but unfortunately just avoiding identification this visit - you can't win them all!

The other waders similar to recent.

Heysham Nature Reserve 

Small Tortoiseshell - Janet

South shore  (Kevin)

Pale-bellied Brent goose 20 on Red Nab

Chiffchaff singing along the dog walking path

A nice day and a decent day

Another dry and largely sunny day. A SW wind.

Middleton Nature Reserve (Janet)

Gadwall coming in

Gadwall pair

Little grebes

Not welcomed by this Coot

Coot

Mallard pair on the secluded fence pond

All the regular tits were taking advantage of the feeders in the bottom car park.

Great Tit, taking great care with its meal

Blue Tit

Coal Tit

Long-Tailed Tit, in punk mode

Saltmarsh to Red Nab

Janet checked in the morning when the tide was out.

Shelduck

Little Egret

Curlew

Redshank - the forest of Samphire behind it is binding the mud in this section
beyond the creek that historically only had temporary tufts of marsh grass

Female Stonechat

This is a cuttlebone, the internal skeleton of a Cuttlefish. They often wash 
in during spring tides, sometimes in large numbers. This one appears to
have remnants of its skin on the upper surface.

I checked again this afternoon towards high water (Malcolm).

The, or another female Stonechat was along the western edge of the saltmarsh, near the slipway.

Reed Bunting 2

Linnet 4

Rock Pipit 6 - two along the foreshore and four feeding together on the flotsam at the saltmarsh. Unfortunately some of the flotsam is manmade waste, but to be fair there is much less of this now than there was twenty years ago. Three of the Rock Pipits in this clip.

Common Snipe 4 flushed by the rising tide.

Wigeon 167 at the saltmarsh.

North shore 

Shag 1 out from Heysham Head at low water - David Kaye

Pete checked later 

Great Crested grebe 7

Red-breasted Merganser 3

Low numbers of Eider

I checked as the tide covered the skear late morning (Malcolm)

Pale-bellied Brent goose 6

Oystercatcher 1,500

Curlew 40

Redshank 80

Knot 1,000 got as close as the middle skear, just 400 as far as the waterline. Two Peregrine attacks saw them off.

Turnstone 140 - three flocks of 30 - 40 flew east, plus typical feeding numbers

Dunlin 80

Ringed Plover 12

Ringed Plover

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