........seen, but not heard

As forecast it froze hard (-5.5°C) on last night's light snowfall. Another sunny day with variable light breezes, the temperature never reaching 4°C.

Heysham skear - Malcolm 08:45 - 10:00

I went down to watch the tide cover the skear.

Pale-bellied Brent geese 38 flew to the play area rocks.

Pale-bellied Brent geese with Heysham Village in the background 

Eider 6

Red-breasted Merganser 10

Curlew 55 resting before heading east

Knot there was just one small group of 6. And this is the reason why...

Peregrine Falcon, it had already cleared most of the small waders from what
remained of the skear 

You may have noticed in the above clip, that despite last night's snow here,
the Lakeland hills remain snow free.

Also, just discernible, at the end of the clip you can see the incoming tide lifting thin plates of ice from the mud. I love watching these high spring tides come in when there are no waves, all the water movement is just down to the tide. Note how quickly the mud island that begins to the right disappears. You can also see the ice lifted off the mud being tumbled by the tide.

Middleton Nature Reserve - Janet

Coot still finding plenty of pond weed

Heron shouting at something (contrary to todays title!)

Mute Swans on the main pond.......

And Billy No-Mates cygnet on the completely frozen "no swimming" pond

Teal showing just how tiny they are compared to a Mallard

Great Tit, the bright sun forming a band across its tail

Female Chaffinch 

South shore - Alan Physick

Shag on the wooden jetty at high tide

Imperial Rd - Malcolm 13:45

It is this visit that today's title refers too

Water Rail, none heard but one seen briefly as it hopped over a fence.

Water Rail

Cetti's warbler, again none heard, but one glimpsed 

Cetti's warbler

Both a single Jay and a Raven flew north without calling.

Raven

Common Snipe 1 lifted (noisily!)

Lapwing 16 in the field to the east of the road

Heron 1

Little Egret 1

Stonechat female and male

Female Stonechat 

They are both on the largest boulder in this location shot. The horizontal 
line across the middle of the shot is the kerb on the eastern side of the road

South side - Kevin Eaves

Today was one of the few days we get each year when Snowdonia is visible from the end of the south sea wall

The cold spell is kicking in!

Freezing (-3°C) overnight. A sunny day with a light variable breeze. Snow showers began after dark with freezing temperatures to follow!

South shore - Malcolm 09:30 - 11:15

The sun was just breaking through the low clouds. This Goldfinch was presenting
as much of its back and rump as possible to catch what warmth it could.

Pale-Bellied Brent geese 44 flew to Red Nab.

Pale-bellied Brent geese

Pink-Footed geese 62 to NW

Wigeon 150+

Eider 1 male 

Male Eider drifting in with the tide

Kingfisher 1 flew across Red Nab

Kingfisher

Rock Pipit one each Red Nab and lighthouse 

Cormorants and Wigeon

Turnstone and Bar-Tailed Godwit

Grey Seal by No.2 outfall

Saltmarsh:

Much of the marsh was already covered when I arrived, most of the Common Snipe would have already been flushed, but another 19 were flushed while I watched.

Jack Snipe 7 sightings, but probably only 5 birds as they tend to land back on the marsh fringes.

This is typically what you see, Jack Snipe lower middle

Jack Snipe

One of two Reed Buntings 

Song Thrush

 Middleton Nature Reserve main pond - Janet

Mainly Mallard, but there is a male Teal just showing.
No sign of the Tufted, but there were several Gadwall

Adult female Mute Swan

I was quite surprised that the Cygnets greeted the mum with a display
when she finally joined them.

Moorhen, not actually as graceful as it looks here!

Heron

Blue Tit with a titbit 

Dunnock

Howard checked the heliport, there were no roosting Knot. However he did find two high water roosts occupied. 2000 on the Sunnyslopes groyne and a further 3000 just out of the recording area on Teal Bay groyne. Flagged birds seen on both groynes have also been seen on the skear and heliport previously, so there is currently a pool of at least 5000 Knot.

One of the flagged Knot on Sunnyslopes groyne. Later seen on the skear

These shots from the Heliport wall by Kevin Singleton 

Curlew

Wren

Robin

Heysham skear - Malcolm 14:30 - 15:30

Pale-bellied Brent geese at least 31 flying around

Pale-bellied Brent geese

Eider 30+

Red-breasted Merganser 6

2000 Knot turned up, but they feed differently on these very fast draining spring tides. Lots of invertebrates get stranded behind the rough ground on the north side and the Knot stayed there until they all moved much further out, also to rough terrain.

I only saw a few flagged birds, and no new ones, but one was the same as one Howard saw on the Sunnyslopes groyne earlier. So the flags provide useful information about local population movement as well as their larger movement picture.

Jack Snipe best of the day

Another freezing night followed by a bright cold day with a fresh NW wind

Shaun Coyle checked a few areas this morning:

Imperial Road marsh:

Water Rail 3 calling/squealing.

Single Little Egret & Grey Heron.

Stonechat pair.

Jay 2 and a roe deer.

Green Woodpecker flew from MNR to roadside trees at the end of Moneyclose Lane. Then showing well for 10 minutes.

Ocean Edge saltmarsh:

Wigeon 172.

Lapwing 24.

Grey Plover 1.

Common Snipe 42.

Jack Snipe 2.

Skylark 2.

Rock Pipit 1 and 4 Reed Buntings 

Red Nab: 

Turnstone 15.

Pair of Rock Pipit's, before they headed over to the power station.

Brent Geese group of c40 then 5 past harbour heading towards Heysham Head at mid-day.

Heliport - Malcolm 09:30

Knot c1000 mainly flying around, they settled briefly a couple of times, but were nowhere to be seen on a second check 30 minutes later

High numbers of Oystercatcher again

Middleton Nature Reserve main pond - Malcolm

The pond was partially covered in ice, no Tufted Duck around, but still 8:Gadwall

Mallard, Gadwall, Coot and Moorhen

Plenty of gulls on the ice, but none ringed

Pink-Footed geese 20 south

Heysham skear - Malcolm 14:00 - 16:00

Pale-bellied Brent geese 35 minimum.

Brent Geese making their way to the play area rocks

Eider 50+

Male Eider, including an immature one on the left

Red-breasted Merganser 10

Red-breasted Mergansers

Great Crested Grebe 2

There were a lot more Oystercatcher on the skear than recently, c5000

Knot 2000 unfortunately two Peregrines were attacking today.

Peregrine over a Knot flock

At this time of year the light goes like someone turning off a switch. Still, we are on the right side of winter now.

Not quite sunset, but the light was gone before I got back to the seafront.