Thwarted by the weather!

Unfortunately the rain forecast to start at 10:00 began at 08:30, and continued all day. A freshening west wind ended up strong by evening.

Heysham skear (Malcolm) 08:15 - 09:30

Pale-Bellied Brent goose 4 - they were feeding on sea lettuce and gutweed that the overnight tide had deposited on the shore above the SE skear corner

That's the children's play area in the background. You can see that some of
the rocks in front of it are green with the gutweed growing on them.

Eider 2 males

Little Egret 6

Oystercatcher 500

Curlew 10

Redshank 30

Turnstone 20

Knot 1400

The larger of two Knot flocks

Unfortunately by that time the rain had already started so checking for colour coded birds with limited optics was very difficult. I did manage to spot one.

One of a Dutch ringing scheme, we have seen it before. Ringed at the Wadden Sea
Holland in 2019. It was last seen at Heysham in January this year. Hopefully,
it has been seen somewhere else since then.

And that was it! A quick check of Imperial Rd on the way home saw nothing of note. 

Another stop off at the main pond on Middleton Nature Reserve also saw nothing new.

Tufted Duck 6

Gadwall 6

Mallard not counted

Gadwall and Tufted Duck

Tufted Duck and a bathing gull

The Mallard thought I was going to feed them and headed towards me.

Coot and a Cormorant 

Brent leave disappointed

A dry sunny day with a cold NW wind

Heysham skear (Malcolm)

I checked 08:30 -10:00 on the rising tide this morning and again 17:00 - 18:00 on the ebbing tide this evening (last evening check till springtime!). The following is all from this morning:

Pale-bellied Brent goose 8

They flew from the SE corner of the skear, which is barren of vegetation 
this far out this year. They headed to the north of the skear

They hung around a honeycomb worm reef until it was covered by the tide,
then flew off to the west. There is plenty of gutweed further up the shore here
but some years the SE corner provides a good crop of their favoured sea lettuce
for the early Brent geese arrivals to enjoy 

There were no Eider or Mergansers 

Great Crested Grebe just 1 seen

Cormorants, as well as two or three feeding a group of eight flew SE across the skear, then continued over Heysham Village

Cormorants heading SE

Little Egret 6

Oystercatcher 600, more than of late, but the outer skear was not exposed and the low morning sun made it easy to spot them.

Oystercatchers scattered across the skear

Curlew 20

Redshank 50

Turnstone 15

Knot 800 in several smallish groups.

Knot hunkered down behind a ledge, out of the bitterly cold wind 

Some days the Carrion Crows take exception to you being on their skear.
Other days, like today, they completely ignore you. These were only a couple 
of metres away and I had to "shoo" them to get past!

I returned this evening to check out the Knot, their numbers had grown to 1200. And I managed to find and read several flagged birds before the light faded too much.

Plenty of Knot this evening 

But difficult terrain to spot flagged birds

Not to mention overcrowding 

Occasionally one reveals itself. Details awaited 

Imperial Rd (Malcolm) 10:30

No sign of any Stonechats today

Cetti's warbler singing and Water Rail squealing

Grey Heron 1

Roe Deer, three again but more wary today

Roe Deer

Kingfisher consistent on these high tides

 The odd heavy morning shower. Sunny spells and a light west wind.

South shore (Malcolm) 10:45 - 12:30

Not many waders along the waterline on the rising tide.

Curlew 80 - most heading south quite early

Oystercatcher 60

Bar-Tailed Godwit 14

Grey Plover 12

Dunlin 12

Grey Plover, Oystercatcher and Curlew. That's No.2 outfall in the background 

Bar-Tailed Godwit, Grey Plover and Dunlin

The tide was covering the mud even faster today with the west wind behind it. The waders soon gave up trying to feed and flew south.

Bar-Tailed Godwits

Ringed Plover 8 and Redshank 46 close to the saltmarsh 

Curlew on the saltmarsh 

Around the saltmarsh 

Linnet 80

Greenfinch 4

Goldfinch 6

Reed Bunting 4

Wren 3

Robin 2

Greenfinch with a metal ring

Reed Bunting

Wren

Wigeon 118 arrived at the saltmarsh from Red Nab. At this point the sun was shining but a huge black cloud was approaching quickly, making for some interesting lightning

Wigeon and the looming dark cloud

Wigeon and nothing else!

Shelduck 3

Kingfisher 1 was flying around Red Nab again. This was the same time in the tide as Wednesday, as the tide is covering Red Nab. It settled briefly by the small pool just below the steel bollards.

Kingfisher

Just after this shot the rain arrived!

Imperial Rd (Malcolm)

I called in early this morning, but the only thing I could see or hear was a Kestrel. I was passing again this evening so I checked again, this time with more success.

Stonechat 1 male towards the middle of the marsh. It didn't look to be the same bird as yesterday.

Male Stonechat

Chiffchaff 1 was calling near the roundabout 

Chiffchaff and the roundabout signs

Kestrel 2 hunting 

This Kestrel was hovering over the roundabout 

Mistle Thrush 1

Roe Deer 3 a female with two of this year's youngsters 

They were quite relaxed. They knew I was there, but just watched me.
The teatime traffic was roaring along the bypass less than 20m away.
Later they, and the Mistle Thrush were spooked by a wagon with a loose
plastic covering, as it flapped along the bypass. No louder than the
others, but obviously a different and unsettling sound.

Jacks on the move

A dry day, the light NE breeze freshened as it shifted to NW in the afternoon.

Heysham skear (Malcolm) 08:00 - 09:30

Not a lot going on this morning, but the weather and views were nice!

Pink-Footed goose 35 in one skein north

Eider 20

A nice shot of South Lakes with Eider flying north

Red-Breasted Merganser 6

Mergansers coming in to land

Great Crested grebe 4

Little Egret 6

Grey Heron 2 - one flying very high west to east

Jackdaw 100+ and also flying west to east

Oystercatcher 400 plus more on the shore to the south

Curlew 12

Bar-Tailed Godwit 2

Redshank 120

Knot 150

Turnstone 40

Dunlin 8

Bar-Tailed Godwits

I checked the gutweed and sea lettuce situation. Unfortunately, storm Amy stripped all vegetation low down in the SE corner. This is where wintering Brent geese choose to feed when the tide allows. Not this year! Fortunately there is still plenty of weed higher up in the corner, and it seems to be plentiful high up the shore all along the rocks.

Imperial Rd (Malcolm) 10:00

Sparrowhawk 1 male flew across the marsh

Cetti's warbler 1 singing

Stonechat at least 2, possibly 3. A male and a female type were using the fence as a perch while they looked for feeding opportunities. They were on the west side of the road about 50m from the roundabout.

Male Stonechat 

Female type Stonechat, that's a car on the roundabout at the end of the road

This one was further along the road, but possibly the same bird.
I couldn't relocate the other when I walked back

Middleton Nature Reserve 

I checked at 10:30 (Malcolm)

The Mute swans were practicing flying again, and Mum was helping them today (perhaps a subtle hint?)

Also on the main pond:

Tufted Duck 8

Gadwall 8

Mallard 24

Coot 16

Moorhen 4

Not much on the "no swimming" pond again

Mallard 1

Tufted Duck 1

Teal 1 (possibly more concealed)

Little grebe 1

Mallard, Teal and Little Grebe

Janet checked later and took her camera for the first time since extensive repair work to her wrist. Still, quite rightly, not risking using her large lens though. 

Red Admiral

Common Darter