Butterfly.....thought it was spring!

A light overnight frost followed by a sunny day. It felt quite warm out of the cold NE breeze.

Small Tortoiseshell butterfly looking out at the sunshine and flowers from
Janet's house. Presumably, it had been hibernating in her loft. It was released and
hopefully had time for a quick meal before finding an alternative resting place

Also from Janet. This Roebuck antler was in Middleton Nature Reserve.
It will have been shed recently as part of the natural cycle of antler development.

Heysham skear - Malcolm 08:45 - 10:30

Pale-bellied Brent goose 32 at least

There were two on the north side, here passing what turned out to be the
largest group of Knot

Others were feeding high up the shore, that's the tip of Sunnyslopes groyne
just above the Brent geese

Then a couple of noisy quad bikes flushed 30 from the shore 

Many landed in the SE skear corner 

You can hear a few of their soft grunts in this clip

Red-breasted Merganser 5

Great Crested grebe 1

Little Egret 2

Imperial Rd - Malcolm 10:45

No Stonechats seen

Buzzard 1

Little Egret 2

Grey Heron 1

Water Rail 1 calling

Saltmarsh to Red Nab - Malcolm 13:45 - 14:30

Reed Bunting 2 

Reed Bunting 

Linnet 4

Linnet

Also, Robin 1, Dunnock 1, Song Thrush 1

Dunnock

Shelduck 66

Shelduck lifting off the sea out from the foreshore 

Wigeon 150

Pale-bellied Brent geese at least 20 on Red Nab, but it was difficult checking into the low sun

Pale-bellied Brent and Wigeon

Pale-bellied Brent geese

Little Egret 2

25th December.....that rings a bell!

GOD JUL 

OG

  GODT 

NYTTÅR

The above is the traditional Scandinavian Christmas and New Year greeting. It comes from Jim Wilson who manages the schemes covering the Icelandic and Norwegian flagged Knot. Jim lives above the Arctic circle in Norway, he also sent this

We lost the sun here on 6 December, but are compensated by the Northern Lights
here with moon and stars. Sadly no snow, the temperature is +6c crazy for so far north.

It was also 6°C here today, but felt cooler in the biting east wind.

Heysham skear - Malcolm 08:30 - 10:00

I managed to go out further on the skear than I have for some while today, much of the area is desolate.

This area on the middle skear is normally like that in the bottom right corner

Instead the surface is stripped away exposing the stones that form the skear base.
You can see by the lack of erosion on these stones that they are rarely exposed like
 this. I can't recall it being exposed to this degree before.
Not many feeding opportunities here!

Further out is similar, but some of the rocks are bigger!

It was a beautiful morning, the rising sun making everything rosy for a while 

Knot in flight with Honeycomb worm reefs behind

Oystercatcher 1500

Curlew 35

Redshank 60

Knot 1000+ as I was walking out a flock of c1000 was snaking its way south. I didn't see them land and as I walked around, there were only several small groups scattered about totalling 300.

Turnstone 40

Dunlin 15

Dunlin 

Little Egret 3

Pale-bellied Brent goose 38 at least

Some of the Brent geese on the north side. The bird at the rear has a white
ring. One to watch out for.

Some of the Brent geese in the SE skear corner

Eider 6 flew north

Three pairs of Eider

The card created by Howard, the sentiment from all in the Observation team

First Dark-bellied Brent this winter

A dry sunny day with a light east breeze

Heysham skear - Malcolm 09:00 - 10:30

Pale-bellied Brent goose at least 32. 7 flew north and at least 25 were out from the play area.

Pale-bellied Brent geese heading north

Dark-bellied Brent goose 1 also flew north.

Dark-bellied Brent goose

Eider 4

Red-breasted Merganser 1 male

Great Crested Grebe 4

Little Egret 3

Shag 1 juvenile 

Initially there were only 6 Knot scattered around. I suspect that they are the ones that stand their ground when a Peregrine attacks. This one was particularly reluctant to fly!

Knot

Later as the tide had almost covered the skear several small flocks of Knot arrived, eventually totalling 200. They freshened up in the pools and then most just rested.

Some of the Knot

Curlew having a good scratch

South shore - Malcolm 13:30 - 14:30

I checked the shore out from the saltmarsh as the tide was covering it.

Curlew 75

Bar-Tailed Godwit 1

Grey Plover 12

Knot 1

Redshank 80

Curlew

Bar-Tailed Godwit

Grey Plover

Grey Plovers and a Knot

Imperial Rd - Malcolm

The Stonechats weren't seen

Water Rail 2 calling (half heartedly)

Jackdaw 3 east

Kestrel 3 - it seemed to be two chasing a third one away

Kestrels

Grey Heron 1

Heron 

Buzzard 1

Buzzard

Roe Deer

More ducks on the move

A dry day, but mainly overcast. A light east wind.

North shore

Heliport yesterday - Kevin Singleton 

30 snipe in the air, it’s not something I see often.

Flocks of greenfinch feeding in with oystercatchers

Snipe

Lapwing 

Heysham skear Malcolm 08:30 - 10:30

Pale-bellied Brent geese in the SE skear corner 

Shoveler 8

Shoveler stopped off for a while. I didn't see which way they left

No Eider or Mergansers seen

Shag 1

Shag - bottom right on conger rock. The rest are Cormorants 

Little Egret 3

There was a flock of c1200 Knot and no Peregrine attacks while I was there. I did manage to read a number of flags, all but one seen previously this winter.

From Knowlys Rd - Pete Woodruff 11:20

Pale-bellied Brent goose 52 flew south towards Red Nab

Heliport - Malcolm 13:20

Wherever the Knot went to roost today, it wasn't here.

Shag 1 juvenile, possibly the same as this morning's bird

Shag

It flew off towards Half Moon Bay 

Middleton Nature Reserve - Janet

Cetti's warbler singing on the southern section of the reserve, near the industrial site.

South shore - Janet

Saltmarsh

Common Snipe

Wigeon

Shelduck

Reed Bunting

Wren

Moorhen by the dog walk pond

Rabbit in the Nature Park