Good stuff at the fringes

After a morning shower, the rain managed to hold off till mid afternoon. A freshening SE wind.

These shots are from the Main pond on Middleton Nature Reserve yesterday. Janet can't use her large lens until her arm is fully recovered from surgery, but the wildfowl here can be obliging

Mallard and Tufted Ducks

Male Tufted Duck showing his wing plumage 

Most of the wildfowl was gregarious, but this Moorhen was keeping its distance 

Heysham skear (Malcolm) 09:45 - 11:15

I went down quite late in the rising tide. No Brent Geese, Eider or Mergansers seen.

Little Egret 5

Shag at least 2 juveniles 

Two Shag

Cormorant 

I had wondered if the Knot might turn up late. When I started there were just a few hundred scattered around the skear in small groups. Most hunkered down against the surprisingly cold SE wind.

Knot, looking nearly as cold as I felt!

But as the rising tide consolidated them they were joined by others arriving from the north. Eventually c2,000 were on what was left of the skear. Still not easy to check for flags, but I did see some, although most had already been seen this winter.

Orange flag with white characters 76U. This is a typical sighting.
Ringed at Merseyside last May.

Grey Plover on the skear is slightly unusual, although there was one for a 
while last winter

The water vapour in the ship's exhaust is condensing, making it look like
one of the steam ships that used to leave the harbour......apparently.

Imperial Rd (Malcolm)

Just a brief stop off on my way home failed to relocate the Stonechats.

Cetti's warbler 1 seen

Kestrel 2 

Grey Heron 1

Heron

Mediterranean gull 1 - it was with other gulls in the field to the east of the road. This puts it just outside the recording area, but clearly easily seen from it

Mediterranean gull, left centre, coming in to land

Mediterranean gull with Common gulls

There didn't seem to be a particular reason for them to be there, no sign of any slurry spreading. I checked again in passing this afternoon and the field was empty.

The was a report of a Black Redstart near the Sunnyslopes groyne. Pete went to check it out and managed to see it, near the houses just south of the slipway at Rydal Rd. The northern boundary for the recording area land birds is Knowsley Rd, and you would be hard pushed to see it from there, so just outside the recording area. Hopefully it will hang around.

Top Brent count

An overnight frost followed by a sunny day with almost no wind.

North shore

I went to watch the skear being covered (Malcolm) 08:30 - 10:15

Eider 5

Great Crested Grebe 3

Little Egret 7

There were some territorial battles over what must have been a 
particularly productive pool

Shag at least 1 juvenile 

Shag on Conger Rock

I went to check the Knot, but there were no flocks on the skear. Groups of 250, 100 and 50 arrived from the north circled a few times then continued south. There were just the odd ones scattered around the skear.

This was the largest group of Knot on the skear

But the rising tide consolidated the small groups, ending up with 45 around 
a pool. One was a regular Dutch ringed bird

By 10:00 Pale-bellied Brent geese began arriving. Three at first then another four.

Early Brent geese arrivals 

David Kaye checked at 12:30. By that time there were 103 Pale-Bellied Brent geese, they then flew to the south side. This is by far the highest count this winter.

South Shore (Malcolm) 12:00 - 14:00

I went out onto the shore and heard the commotion of so many Brent geese. It was surprising as they were hundreds of metres away, and as geese go Brent have a relatively quiet call.

Many were already on Red Nab, but unusually, many more were on the sea

A few leave here, more followed. 

Later when I checked Red Nab there was just 39 again.

Shelduck 46

Shelduck

Wigeon 160

I went out hoping to check Knot along the waterline. Things were looking good. 2,500 Knot arrived from the south and settled just where I wanted them to, but before I finished thinking, "don't get disturbed" a Peregrine was already attacking them. I'm pretty sure there were two Peregrines, and the Knot eventually gave up and headed back to the south. Later 60 turned up but none flagged.

Bar-Tailed Godwit 4

Grey Plover 8

Dunlin 1

Bar-Tailed Godwit

Grey Plover and Knot

Knot and a Common gull

Redshank 120 closer to the saltmarsh 

On the saltmarsh 

Rock Pipit 1

Linnet 4

Reed Bunting 1

Goldcrest 1 flitting through the Nature Park.

Imperial Rd (Malcolm)

I noticed that there were a lot of flies around the Nature Park and wondered if the increased insect activity had brought the Stonechats back to their earlier feeding area. It had.

Female Stonechat 

Male Stonechat 

Both near the entrance blocked with boulders 50m from the roundabout. The male above is actually on one of the boulders.

Water Rail at least 3 almost constantly contact calling

Cetti's warbler 1 burst of song

Heysham Head (Janet)

Resting Fox, but they always have one eye on you

Plenty of Knot about, but seeing flagged ones not easy today.

A dry day with a bit of afternoon sunshine. A light north wind.

Heysham skear (Malcolm) 08:00 - 10:00

Pale-Bellied Brent goose feeding amongst the rocks out from the play area. Too distant for an accurate count.

Eider 44

Eider with Piel Castle in the background 

Red-breasted Merganser 3

Red-breasted Merganser 

Little Egret 3

I went down on the rising tide to check the Knot. Initially there was just one group of 500, joined by another group of 200 after a Peregrine attack. Later a further 600 arrived from the north. The light was bad and the terrain they were on was rough so seeing flagged birds wasn't easy, but I eventually managed two new birds.

Peregrine coming out of the gloom

The attack was mercifully swift

It hit the Knot it took hard enough to kill it instantly 

A quick kill also allows the survivors to immediately return to feeding, they
know they are safe from that bird for a while. No other attacks were seen.

An Icelandic ringed Oystercatcher was somewhat easier to spot than the flagged Knot

Heliport (Howard)

There were c2500 on the outer wall on today's tide, they stayed on the shoreline rocks mid way from either end viewing points so no flags read, just the one in the air taken from the road.

Orange flagged Knot, upper right

South shore

Pale-Bellied Brent geese 39 counted on Red Nab, others may have been out of sight - Kevin Eaves

I checked the shore south of the saltmarsh (Malcolm) not long after high water

A line of waders, most feeding in the newly exposed mud

Bar-Tailed Godwit 17 just resting 

Grey Plover 80

Knot 20

Dunlin 1,000

Bar-Tailed Godwit and Grey Plover foreground. 
Grey Plover and Dunlin mid ground 

Grey Plover and Dunlin 

Knot and Dunlin, one of the Knot had an orange flag, but it wasn't 
possible to read it

Sanderling 4 flew from the direction of Potts Corner and headed towards Red Nab

Another Sanderling was resting with Dunlin and Grey Plover closer to
Potts Corner, placing it just south of the recording area.

Dodging the showers, or at least trying to!

Very heavy showers in the morning , but at least there were some short dry spells in between. It managed to not rain in the afternoon. A west wind.

These shots of Knot and Oystercatcher on the Near Naze rocks are by Howard earlier this week.

These Knot didn't move for an hour. When they rest like this the only chance
of seeing any flagged birds, is if they around the edge of the group

These are the Near Naze rocks. The stone structure is the base of an old
lighthouse. An iron lattice was above the stone base, resulting in the name
Skeleton Lighthouse 

Kevin Singleton saw this flagged Knot on the Heliport today

North shore (Malcolm) 09:00 - 09:20

I walked out as the tide was covering the skear. Just one smallish (c500) flock of Knot were flying around.

Shag 2 juveniles seen flying towards the wooden jetty

Shag

Pale-bellied Brent goose 45 out from the play area.

You can see the gutweed growing on the rocks here

The tide was coming in quickly, some were already feeding in the water

They then moved further up the shore, and later likely to have moved to Red Nab

Then the heavens opened! Fortunately, the wind was driving the rain and hail onto my back as I walked back to my car.

Middleton Nature Reserve - main pond (Malcolm)

The rain was easing on my way home so I called in for a look. The Swans, Ducks, Coot and Moorhen seemed to be as late. Not seen a Little Grebe since it froze over. I had 3 minutes of glorious sunshine, then the heavens opened again. 

Gadwalls and Tufted Ducks

This Tufted Duck was diving in the feeding area

Mallard and Black-Headed gull

Imperial Rd (Malcolm) 

Just a passing check this afternoon as the light was fading

Cetti's warbler 1 seen briefly 

Grey Heron 1

Common Buzzard 1

Kestrel 1

Searching under floodlight. This is 15:25!