Not a Knot to be seen!

A dry and largely sunny day after overnight rain. A light southish breeze, very mild again.

North shore (Malcolm) 09:30 - 10:30

A check as the rising tide was covering the skear saw no Shag, Eider, Grebes or Knot

Red-Breasted Merganser 2

Male Red-breasted Merganser

Pale-bellied Brent goose 28 at least on the rocks out from the play area.

These are the Brent geese looking from Knowlys Rd as I was heading home

I don't know if everyone has a favourite moon phase name. Perhaps not.
But I do, and this is it. A waning gibbous. Although I do like the name, this
phase indicates that we are past the peak of spring tides and are moving back
to neap tides, which tend to provide fewer viewing options. So my actual 
favourite phase it its opposite, a waxing gibbous.

I checked the Near Naze and Heliport wall both before and after high water. Not a Knot to be seen. Their absence certainly isn't down to the lack of food here, presumably the Peregrine persecution just became too intense. Hopefully the food availability will tempt the Knot back

Imperial Rd (Malcolm) 10:45

Water Rail 3 squealing, but from the edges of the marshy area, the water table is still very high.

Moorhen 1 heard

Teal 2

Grey Heron 2

Kestrel 1

Female Kestrel 

Stonechat 2 both the Male and the female were feeding, but quite a distance from the road amongst the Reedmace. 

Male Stonechat amongst the Reedmace

The female did fly to the fence to have something solid to beat this 
hairy caterpillar against.

Red Nab (Janet) just before high water

 Oystercatchers, Turnstone and  and Curlew were the only waders

Little Egret heading off

Kingfisher 1 - it flew from the right of me towards the little pool that fills on high tides but then flew back again and looked like it was going to land on the sea wall but I lost where it went, it couldn't go in the freshwater outlet as the tide was up too far!!

The weather was kinder than expected, at least half of the day was dry

The rain held off till lunchtime, then continued for the remainder of the day. A light SE breeze freshened later as it moved more due south.

Very mild for December! No lower than 7°C overnight and up to 11°C this afternoon, and that's without any sunshine.

Heliport

These shots by Howard show some of the Snipe seen yesterday 

They are not so easy to see once they settle

Pete and Jean checked today 

32 Knot

480 Redshank

8900 Oystercatcher 

One Oystercatchers, was this Icelandic ringed bird

North shore (Malcolm) 09:15 - 10:15

Little Egret 2

Pale-bellied Brent goose at least 63 were on the waterline out from the play area.

Then they headed towards the rocks, the keen ones flying others opting to goose step

Pink-Footed goose 32 SE then later 63 NW

SE bound Pinkfoot 

Red-breasted Merganser 4

Shag 2 at least

As I was walking out there were 150 Knot being chased south by a Peregrine. At least one other Peregrine was around

Peregrine Falcon

One of the juvenile Shag  high tide roosted sunny slopes groyne, another on wooden jetty - Pete

Imperial Rd (Makcolm)

The water table was already high here, but it was 15cm higher this morning. Possibly why no Water Rail were heard.

Kestrel 1

Grey Heron 1

Grey Heron chilling out

Little Egret 1

Stock Dove 1 south

Cetti's warbler 1 singing (once)

Stonechat 2 both the male and female were showing well

 

Male Stonechat 

Female Stonechat 

This is the female feeding.

There was definitely insect activity today a spider was constructing a web across a track I walked along yesterday. I turned back, partly in consideration for the spider, but mainly as the water was perilously high up my wellie!

Knot, as fickle as the weather!

Showers on and off all day. A light SW wind.

Middleton Nature Reserve - main pond (Malcolm)

1 female Mute Swan still with 6 cygnets 

Mallard 25

Gadwall 6

Tufted Duck 12

Coot 17

Moorhen 4

Moorhen and Coot 

Imperial Rd (Malcolm)

Buzzard 1 east just after a shower stopped

Little Egret 1 west also just after the shower

Green Sandpiper flew from one obscured area of wetland to another equally obscured area.

Common Snipe 2

No sign of the Stonechat 

Carrion Crow eating carrion, likely roadkill from the nearby bypass 

One of three Blackbirds feeding on Hawthorn berries

South shore (Malcolm)

Just a quick check of Red Nab on the rising tide.

Pale-Bellied Brent Geese at least 29

The gutweed is quite close cropped, but it continues to grow, albeit slowly,
 in this mild weather

The rising tide moves them off the rocks

Slightly unusually, three small groups flew off leaving the others behind

The remainder followed shortly afterwards 

Wigeon 200, plus it is likely that some had already left for the saltmarsh.

Just a few of the Wigeon

Rock Pipit 1

Kingfisher 1 flying around 

Kingfisher 

Heliport and Near Naze (Howard)

Zero knot on heliport, 

c140 snipe flushed from the longer vegetation close to the roadside.

There was some difficulty logging on to the blog this evening. If a post doesn't appear one day, it will likely be because of a technical problem that hopefully will be resolved.

A little bit of everything

It remained dry with sunny spells until late afternoon when the rain started. The SE wind freshened all day and ended up being strong.

South shore

I checked from the saltmarsh to Red Nab on the rising tide this morning (Malcolm)

Pale-bellied Brent goose 31 flew to Red Nab from the south side.

They happily fly and swim together, but when they start feeding bickering 
breaks out as they split into small, presumably family, groups

Shelduck 8

Shelduck 

Wigeon 160

Wigeon

Little Egret 3

Little Egret

Rock Pipit 1

Rock Pipit

Janet checked this afternoon on the ebb tide

The Pale-bellied Brent geese were back on Red Nab, today's high water would have moved them on. Later they flew back to the south side.

Moorhen 4 in the Nature Park.

Imperial Rd (Malcolm)

There were only a few Carrion Crows flying around. It would seem the interlopers have been seen off.

Water Rail 2 squealing

Stonechat 1 male, again quite a distance from the road

Male Stonechat

1 male Kestrel hunting 

Heliport/Near Naze (Malcolm)

I should have checked here before checking Imperial Rd. When I did arrive at 09:45 there were c700 Knot on the Near Naze. But the tide was already high and rising quickly. It moved them on before I could complete a full check for any flagged birds. I only saw one.

Knot being moved off the Near Naze rocks

The Knot resettled on the Heliport wall and the rocks below, where they mixed with Redshank, Common Snipe, Lapwing, Turnstone, at least one Dunlin and of course Oystercatchers.

A good mix of waders, all of the above in this shot.
But you will have to open the image to see the detail 

Oystercatchers carpeting the bulk of the heliport wall

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

The forecast rain was approaching quickly and it was already getting murky.

Little Egret 4

Eider 46

Little Egret and Eider

Cormorant and Eider

Shag 2 juveniles 

Juvenile Shag

There had been just 30 Knot around, I was about to leave when another 500 arrived from the north. By this time it was positively gloomy and the strengthening wind making it difficult to remain still. I may as well have left, the Knot settled in rubbly terrain, I glimpsed a couple of flagged birds, but no chance of reading them.

A typical view of this afternoon's (it felt like evening) Knot.
By the time I got back to my car the rain arrived.

Another washout!

It rained for most of the day. Not as heavy as the other day, but still miserable. The light SE breeze switched to the west in the afternoon.

Imperial Rd (Malcolm)

Not a lot going on apart from at least 12 Carrion crows that seem to be in dispute.

Shelduck 4 south 

Kestrel 1

Heliport/Near Naze (Malcolm) 11:00

A passing check saw a flock of 120 Knot coming in to land on the Near Naze rocks.

They were clearly still nervous and stood tall, providing a clear view of their legs

Unfortunately, none of them sported a flag 

This is one of yesterday's flagged birds. It was ringed as adult in
2014 in the NW of Iceland. So it will be at least 15 years old now

The flags are fabricated from light strips of plastic, and although the flags tend
to last longer than the average lifespan of a Knot, they are sometimes worn away
during the lifetime of the longest lived birds. The logic of placing this flag above 
the knee, is to reduce wear on rough terrain. It has clearly worked in this instance.
But the downside is that they are more difficult to read in the field and this scheme
now places the flag below the knee. This flag was also the last year that the code was
printed on. Note how faint the code is in the above shot, compared to the clearer
marking on the other face of the flag. The code is now engraved into the flag.

This Knot seen several times on the skear this winter is from the same scheme.
It was also ringed as an adult in Iceland, this time in 2017. You can see the wear
towards the end of the flag where it has been abraded by terrain such as this. 

There was a carpet of Oystercatcher on the heliport wall again.

Also on the wall

Rock Pipit 1

Greenfinch 2

This shot of a Pied Wagtail pretty much sums up today. It couldn't 
even be bothered to wag! It is a ringed bird.