Jack Snipe bonus

The overnight rain eased by mid morning, then mainly dry. A light SE wind.

Heysham Nature Reserve 

This is an extract from Pete Crook's report from Sunday, posted on the LDBWS website 

1 Cetti’s Warbler – calling at the west end of the reed-bed (1st one I can recall hearing here, but surely ought to be resident)
2 Chiffchaff (heard)
2 Blackcap – females near the ringing ride
1 male Sparrowhawk – flew along the ringing ride
15+ Blackbird – spread around the reserve
1 Mistle Thrush – singing from one of the electricity pylons

If you would like to see the full report plus others there is a link on the sidebar, or use this link.

https://lancasterbirdwatching.org.uk/sightings/

Heysham skear (Malcolm) 10:15 10:45

It was still raining at this point. As I set off a flock of 500 Knot were heading south pursued by a Peregrine Falcon. Another flock of 400 settled again on the skear only to be lifted and also chased south by a Peregrine. The only Knot remaining were three or four small groups less than 50 birds in total.

Shag 1 flew south

Pale-Bellied Brent goose 7 - they were resting on the waterline out from the play area, but the commotion with the Knot lifted them briefly.

Brent geese landing again on the waterline

South shore (Malcolm) 13:00 - 14:30

A walk along the sea wall 2.5hr before high water. I was expecting the Brent geese to fly to Red Nab c13:30, but 10 arrived just after 13:00.

Perhaps something flushed them early from the north side, or it may just
be that the early season gutweed on Red Nab is just too lush to be ignored.

Shelduck 25

Wigeon 100+

Wigeon resting on the sloping sea wall

Cormorants and at least two Shag on the wooden jetty

This shot is from the end of the sea wall there is a Shag, either
side of the central Cormorant 

this shot is looking back from the lighthouse just a few minutes later,
just one Shag remains 

When I was almost back to Red Nab there was a juvenile Shag just out from the sea wall. The water was now too deep for it to feed by snorkelling, but presumably it had been.

First calendar year Shag

Grey Seal 1 also between No.2 outfall and Red Nab

Grey Seal

I was hoping to check the waterline for waders, but a scan from the shore showed there were just a few Oystercatchers for as far as you could see.

The waterline devoid of waders

Jack Snipe 1 accidentally flushed as I walked around the edge of the saltmarsh. It was along the northern edge where groundwater seeps to the surface, it landed again near the eastern edge. I specifically checked the saltmarsh for Jack Snipe in the recent series of spring tides, without a sign, I wasn't expecting one on today's low neap tide. Definitely a bonus!

Brent in a familiar feeding routine

The rain held off till after lunch. Some sunny spells in the morning. A light SE breeze.

Heysham Skear (Malcolm 09:45 - 11:00)

Shag 2 juveniles 

Juvenile Shag

Two Shag

Cormorant 

No Eider or Mergansers seen.

Little Egret 3

Oystercatcher, Curlew, Redshank and Turnstone unchanged 

Common Snipe 1 east

Dunlin 10

Knot at least 4,500

Things were pretty crowded, seeing any flagged birds was not easy

This is a typical sighting.

But occasionally one obliges. This one ringed at Dyfi estuary in Wales 2024

Unfortunately, they just began feeding in a more open area when a Peregrine Falcon attack chased all the Knot south.

The, or a, Peregrine returned a little later with empty talons

Pale-bellied Brent geese 11 were feeding on sea lettuce on the shore above the SE skear corner.

There is some gutweed growing on the rocks here, but the sea lettuce
is broken and deposited on the mud by the retreating tide

Later they were joined by another 3 as David Kaye saw 14.

Later still 11 were feeding on Red Nab - Kevin Eaves

This is the feeding routine often used by the Brent Geese, feeding on the north side till the tide covers the available weed, then fly to Red Nab on the south side.

Kevin also saw a Grey Seal in the harbour entrance.

A quick circuit pre rain

Rain from mid morning onward. A light SE wind

The sun was shining first thing so I checked three areas while the going was good (Malcolm)

Middleton Nature Reserve main pond - not really much change still a female and six immature Mute Swans, 14 Gadwall, 8 Tufted Duck, plus Mallard, Coot and Moorhens.

Some of the widfowl

Gadwall

Imperial Road

Jackdaw 9 south looked like movement 

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

A young buck

Heysham skear on the flood tide

Little Egret 4

Red-breasted Merganser 1 

Red-breasted Merganser

Oystercatcher, Redshank, Curlew and Turnstone in typical numbers

Bar-Tailed Godwit 3

Ringed Plover 7

Ringed Plover

Dunlin 30

Knot 4,000

Knot and a Dunlin

Even though there were lots of Knot, I didn't see many flagged. This clip shows just a few of them feeding, it isn't always possible to read any that are flagged but you normally manage glimpses of them.

Carrion Crow and Knot

This Herring Gull has a large mussel that it will open by dropping onto
the skear. The general lack of a spongy mat of mussels over the skear
bottom this year must help with this technique 

This Herring Gull has a large Common Starfish. Small ones get swallowed 
whole, but when this size they just peck the guts from the middle.

You may spot the Godwits in the background to this clip

One of two barrel Jellyfish 

The rain started at 10:00. It was obvious that it was unlikely to stop, so home time.

An increase, in Brent geese

A dry day with some sunshine. A light SW breeze.

Heysham skear (Malcolm)

Two checks again as the skear was covered then uncovered, although this evening's check was relatively brief in the fading light.

Pale-Bellied Brent geese 25 flew from the rocks midway up the shore to the rocks out from the play area this morning 

Some of the Brent geese heading to the play area rocks.
You can see the gutweed on the rocks at the bottom of the shot,
that is where they were feeding.

Pink-Footed goose 45 south this morning

Wigeon 23 south this afternoon 

Wigeon heading south over the exposing skear

Eider 10

Red-breasted Merganser 1 male

Shag at least 1 juvenile, both sessions. This is this afternoon, the Merganser also drifts through

Little Egret 2

Oystercatcher, Curlew, Redshank and Turnstone similar to recent

Bar-Tailed Godwit 5 this morning

Bar-Tailed Godwits

Common Snipe 4 - this morning's birds had rested on the skear before heading east

Knot at least 5000 this morning, but heavily disturbed by at least one Peregrine Falcon. 4000 had returned this evening before I was finally beaten by the light.

Some of the Knot still not fully moulted from summer plumage

There were several flagged birds seen but some flocks had almost no flagged birds amongst them, plus of course the terrain isn't ideal for seeing all their legs. But it would seem that the effects of the damage to the mussel beds caused by storm Amy in early October has benefited the Knot. They seem to be easily finding lots of small mussels that are an ideal size for them.

A UK scheme flagged bird, right. The middle Knot has a small mussel
which they swallow whole.

This was 16:05. I managed to continue till 16:30.

Janet took this clip of the Widgeon on the saltmarsh on the south side.

Lots of Knot

A warm largely sunny day with a light SE breeze

Heysham Nature Reserve 

Report by Jean:

The ringing today wasn’t as exciting as yesterday. A Chiffchaff and a Blackcap were the only warblers. An irruptive flock of 11 Long-tailed Tits were all new birds. A couple of Blackbirds were also new.

Overhead vis of southbound birds consisted of:

Brambling 1

Chaffinch 25

Redwing 16

Skylark 16

Starling 60

Woodpigeon 296 (includes 200 seen at Middleton)

Blackbird 19 took off from bushes and headed south.

296 Pink-footed Geese were seen, with 170 early ones that were probably ex-roost heading north and birds later in the morning heading south.

A female Brimstone butterfly next to office and two butterflies heading rapidly south, a red admiral and what was probably a glimpse of another

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Early morning ringing included:

A Blackcap, Treecreeper and three unringed Cetti’s Warbler 

Heysham Skear (Malcolm)

Two checks today, one as the skear was being covered 07:30 - 09:00. And again as it was uncovered 14:45 - 16:15

Pink-Footed goose 28 (20+8) NE

Pink-Footed geese catching the morning sun

Eider 80 

Some of this afternoon's Eider, there is another raft in the background 

Red-Breasted Merganser 2

Male Merganser

Great Crested grebe 1

Great Crested Grebe just swallowing a fish

Little Egret 2 this morning but 8 on the ebbing tide this afternoon.

Little Egret, also with a fish

Shag at least one juvenile each visit

Skylark 1 east this morning 

Common Snipe 7 individuals flew east this morning 

The reason for today's visits was to check the Knot. There ended up being an impressive 5,000 this morning, all eventually leaving to the south. There were 2,000 waiting for the skear to become exposed this afternoon, but no more arrived.

The inner skear was still in the shadow of the shore as I walked out this 
morning, but the sun was catching these incoming Knot and the
honeycomb worm reefs behind

More soon arrived and there were lots more to come 

They were very compact and the rapidly rising tide and at least one 
Peregrine Falcon kept moving them on. Still there was a reasonable 
number of flagged birds amongst them this morning, but again not
so many amongst the 2,000 this afternoon 

These are some of this morning's Knot blotting out the Power Stations

Dunlin 15 with the Knot

Curlew 40+ this afternoon. Other waders similar to recent 

Curlew and Oystercatcher 

Great Firecrest and YBW double!

A dry day with plenty of sunshine in the morning. A light SE breeze

Heysham Nature Reserve 

Report by Jean:

Ringing:

Only 9 new birds caught today. A case of quality rather than quantity:

Firecrest 1

Yellow-browed Warbler 1

Chaffinch 3

Goldfinch 2

Blackbird 1

Blue Tit 1

Male Firecrest

Yellow Browed Warbler

There was actually some vis this morning:

22 Fieldfare

30 chaffinch

55 Starling

Woodpigeon 674 - most in the first 45 minutes of daylight 

Chaffinch 90

Goldfinch 30 (one flock)

Carrion Crow 44

Skylark 4+

Siskin 1+

All south apart from 200 Pink-footed Geese which flew north and were probably ex roost from Cockerham Marsh.

Woodcock one calling from near the gate to the top path

Male brimstone butterfly flying about next to car park late am

South shore

I checked from Red Nab to the saltmarsh (Malcolm) 09:30 

Pale-bellied Brent goose 6

Brent geese and Shelduck

Pink-Footed goose 40 south, later 8 north

Shelduck 9

Wigeon 130 ended up on the saltmarsh 

Little Egret 3

Rock Pipit 1

Reed Bunting 6 at the saltmarsh 

Reed Bunting

No Shag seen at Red Nab, but later Kevin saw one near No.1 outfall

Juvenile Shag......looking shaggy!

Heliport wall

There were c2000 Knot roosting on the wall. Howard checked them but
could see no flagged birds - more on this later

Heysham skear (Malcolm) 14:00 - 15:30

Eider 62

It was all very serine this afternoon 

Great Crested Grebe 3

Shag only one juvenile seen.

Shag and a Great Crested grebe

Knot 2250 - a flock of 2000 arrived on the skear just as it was being exposed. They fed in the same area for an hour, and I checked them from all sides but I could only find five flagged birds. It puts yesterday's four flagged birds from a flock of fifty into prospective! The other 250 arrived later and headed to the seaward end of the skear, there was little point in following them as the light was already closing in.

This is slightly odd behaviour, the Black-Headed gulls normally feed like this when there is an abundance of shrimps. But it is a bit early for the tiny shrimps and the flat sea doesn't tempt the larger ones in. It is obviously related to the speed that these very high tides ebb, all kinds of small fish and invertebrates will be caught out. Although the gulls seem to be doing more arguing than feeding!