Eider changing their tune

A dull day but it remained dry. Calm in the morning then a light east breeze.

Red Nab to saltmarsh - Malcolm 10:00 - 10:30

Pale-bellied Brent goose at least 16 feeding on Red Nab rocks

Wigeon 50

Brent geese and wigeon

Shelduck 29

Shelduck 

Little Egret 1

Reed Bunting 3 around the saltmarsh 

Reed Bunting

Long-Tailed Tits 8 in the Nature Park

Imperial Rd - Malcolm 11:00

Teal 3

Moorhen 2

Water Rail 1 calling

Kestrel 1

No sign of the Stonechats 

Howard checked the high water roosts for Knot. None around the Heliport. A few knot visible on outside of sunnyslope, nothing on the groynes through Morecambe or teal bay. 

Later c2000 knot arrived on broadway groyne then down to feed as tide dropped, another c500 knot on park street groyne and feeding before being flushed by dog walkers.

Heysham skear - Malcolm 14:30 - 16:00

Pale-bellied Brent goose 48 - groups of 10, 22, 12 and 4 flew north to a line of rocks out from the Grosvenor fishing platform.

Some of the Brent landing

They all ended up on the line of rocks mid picture 

Later as the light faded, they flew back to the freshwater runoffs on the 
skear to freshen up for the night.

Eider 208 around the skear, others seen flying north. They were making a funny sound today. Normally the air is full of the males almost comic cooing. But today it seemed that the females were making most of the noise, a clucking sound. I took this clip, but disappointingly, you can't really hear them until towards the end.

Knot 300 - 250 and 50. I hung around to see if one of the large flocks turned up for a bath before bedtime, but they didn't today.

The Carrion Crows make me smile, they strut around calling, clearly thinking that the skear belongs to them. How arrogant! They should know better, it clearly belongs to me 😊

A bit of a flirt!

The rain started about 09:00 and never really stopped again all day. A light SE wind

South shore - Malcolm 09:00 - 09:30

Just a walk from Red Nab to the saltmarsh again, but a little earlier in the rising tide today.

Pink-Footed goose 100+ north as I arrived

Pale-bellied Brent goose 10 arrived. Same number as seen feeding here yesterday, so possibly additional to the 34 on the north side yesterday. It's not an elephant in the background, just activity in the Power Station.

Wigeon 60 but more were arriving all the time

Wigeon

Red-breasted Merganser 1 female.

You could see where she was feeding by the bubbles on the surface, she makes short work of a shore crab here

Female Red-breasted Merganser

Shelduck 6 around Red Nab plus 16 out from the saltmarsh 

Reed Bunting 2 around the saltmarsh 

Middleton Nature Reserve main pond - Malcolm 10:00

As I arrived six Mute Swans were shaping to land on the pond, but changed their minds and continued south. I assumed that it was the six cygnets flying around, but no they were already on the pond, plus two adults. Then another adult came in and landed, the adult male immediately flew over to investigate. The new bird must have been a female as the male immediately began bonding. 

It didn't last long! The other adult, clearly regarded herself as his mate, flew over and chased the other female off, but not away, she stayed on the pond.

Tufted Duck 6

Mallard 20+

Cormorant 1 

Immature Cormorant 

One of the cygnets is still confined to the peninsula 

Lots of Knot in the Bay, but they are not feeding here. Plus a dummy duck!

A dry day with a SE wind

South shore 

Pete from Ocean Edge

Duck decoy drifting past the outfalls

Shag 1 sub adult

Malcolm 09:30 - 10:00

Just a check from Red Nab to the saltmarsh towards high water

Pale-bellied Brent goose 10

Brent Geese and Oystercatcher on Red Nab

Shelduck 15

Wigeon 120

Wigeon, Shelduck and Cormorants 

Eider 1 male

Eider 

Little Egret 1

Seven flocks of Knot flew SE towards the River Lune estuary, well over 3000 total number

One of seven Knot flocks, clearly there are plenty still in the bay

There was nothing along the foreshore or around the saltmarsh edges.

Heysham skear - Malcolm 14:15 - 15:45

Pale-bellied Brent goose at least 34, likely including this morning's birds.

Two flew south as I was walking out, there were none close in at first then 32 arrived from the north and fed along the edge of the innermost rocks.

Brent geese landing. That's Oakley Rd in the background 

An hour later they flew out to feed in the SE skear corner

They landed on the sea then swam back to the skear corner, I do like it when they swim towards me.

Eider 139

Red-breasted Merganser 2

Great Crested Grebe 3

Great Crested Grebe

Little Egret 3

Oystercatcher 1500

Curlew 4

Redshank 200

Turnstone 40

Dunlin 30

Knot 2000+ briefly. For most of the time there was just one small feeding group of 100. Then, just as the light was fading at least 500 arrived from somewhere and landed on the south side to freshen up in the brackish water there. By the time I reached them the light was fading quickly, I just began checking them for flags when at least another 1500 landed around them. No chance of seeing any flags now. The closer birds were in the water and the ones behind too densely packed. But it hardly mattered, no sooner had they landed when they all took flight again and headed off to the south.

Knot heading off to the south

Dunlin

Significant increase in Eider

A dry sunny day with a fresh SE wind.

These shots by Janet in the Nature Park earlier this week.

Robin

Great Tit

Blue Tit

Janet advises that the previously resident female Mute Swan on Middleton Nature Reserve main pond, has been taken to the vets for treatment to leg injuries caused by defending her territory against the newly arrived pair

Heysham skear - Malcolm 13:00 - 14:30

Pale-bellied Brent goose 13

These four were just 50m from the promenade as I walked out. There is clearly 
a rich vein of gutweed here

They were still there 90 minutes later, despite being next to a popular dog
exercising stretch of shore

These nine Brent geese flew north

Pink-Footed goose 34. A skein of 33 south and this lone bird.

Pink-Footed goose

Eider at least 93. 

Eider

Little Egret 1

Little Egret, Eider, Oystercatcher and Redshank

Oystercatcher 1500

Curlew 1

Redshank 150

Knot 750, not so many flagged birds today, but there was one from a different scheme.

One of a Humber scheme. Details awaited, but presumably quite old
as the red flag is a very faded.

Dunlin 3

Dunlin

Ringed Plover 5 

Ringed Plover

Many birds disappointed by the lack of shrimps

Another dry and mainly sunny day with a light SE wind

Howard checked at high water this morning 

Pale-bellied Brent goose 27 counted out from the play area, before they flew over to the skeer as the tide was dropping.

Still plenty of gutweed to feed on here

There were no Knot roosting at the heliport or any of the groynes, but c1000 were on Heysham Head rocks.

Heysham skear - Malcolm 12:00 - 14:00

Pale-bellied Brent goose 8 flew north

Brent geese heading north, below are some of 300+ Black-Headed gulls hoping to
feast on shrimps, but an onshore wind is best for shrimps here, and they quickly left

Pink Footed goose 62 SE

Some of the Pink-Footed geese. The bird second from the left has a trailing leg. It was like this in all the shots.

Better a broken leg than a broken wing

Eider 35

Oystercatcher 1500

Curlew 1 today!

Curlew

Redshank 130

Turnstone 40

Knot 1400, presumably the 1000 that roosted on Heysham Head rocks plus a few more. Most just rested

Some had a half hearted go at shrimping

By the time I left all the Knot had moved off to the north

The forecast is for offshore winds for the rest of the month. But it also forecast that this week would be wet! So hopefully we will get some more onshore winds.

Just out of the recording area - Teal Bay groyne - Howard

No Knot, but there was this leucistic Oystercatcher 

A Long-Tailed Tit-fest and a budgie!

A dry day with a cold south wind drifting to SE after lunch. Some sunny spells.

Middleton Nature Reserve main pond - Rosemary and Peter Silvester 

Mute Swans, Greylag Goose, Cormorant, Tufted Duck and Black-Headed gulls

Great Tit

Long-Tailed Tits

Imperial Rd - Rosemary and Peter Silvester 

We did see the stonechats, along with a couple of magpies, a robin and a kestrel 

But for us it's been a Long Tailed Tit day!

Heysham skear - Malcolm

I started at 11:00 as the skear was becoming exposed

Pale-bellied Brent goose 12 flew north

Pale-bellied Brent geese

Pink-Footed goose 14 flew west

Eider 8

The south wind was already slightly to the east, not typically ideal conditions to attract the Knot but 3000+ turned up!

Knot carpeting the skear

Still some with hints of summer plumage 

Unfortunately most of them just rested in difficult terrain to check for flags.

We are at the lowest of the neap tides at the moment and the tide was very slow going out. It had got to 12:30 and most of the Knot were still resting. I was supposed to be on my way to the chippy ("sorry, long queue!"), so I decided to leave them be and return at low water.

Wrong decision! When I returned at 14:00 the Knot were all but gone. Just four were resting on the skear, a small flock of 100 were flying around but wouldn't land. Presumably the Peregrines had been active!

Oystercatcher 2000

Icelandic scheme Oystercatcher - details awaited 
Interestingly, there should be a white as well as a black ring on the left leg.
It seems that the black ring has slipped over the white one. The "rings" are only
made of very thin plastic and the ends overlap to allow expansion and fitting. 

Redshank 150

Turnstone 40

This escaped budgie was opposite Broadgate garage on Middleton Rd at 4pm - Pete