Grey Phalarope best of the day

A fresh NW wind. Showers with sunny spells.

Seawatch from North Harbour wall (Pete Crooks and Shaun Coyle)

07:45-12:15: 

Gannet – 1 adult in

Shag – 1 juvenile out, close inshore at 0945 hrs – probably heading to roost on the wooden pier

Pink-footed Geese – 123 out (skeins of 73 and 50)

Pale-bellied Brent Goose – 1 out with 3 Shelduck at 0950 hrs

Shelduck – 90 out

Wigeon – 27 out

Pintail – 2 out

Eider – 6 (4 out, 2 on the sea)

Red-breasted Merganser – 2 out

Great Crested Grebe – 3 on the sea

Guillemot – (1 on sea, 1 out)

Grey Phalarope – 1 flew out relatively close inshore at 1025 hrs – a small black, white and grey wader with a distinctive ‘rocking’ or ‘jinking’ flight action, blackish wings, with obvious white wing-bar, messy grey and black mantle, dark mask and crown

Common Gull – c.60 out

South shore (Malcolm) 

A 15 minute check from the lighthouse 09:30 - 09:45 saw

Shelduck 38 out (likely included in the above count)

Pink-Footed goose 73 in one skein south (clearly one of the skeins seen by Pete and Shaun)

Shag 3 juveniles flew to the wooden jetty. Probably including the 1 seen from the north wall.

There was a juvenile Shag and a Cormorant just out from the harbour mouth, providing a nice comparison of the two species.

Wigeon 19 on and around Red Nab

Wigeon

Kingfisher 1 on Red Nab

Rock Pipit 3

Rock Pipit

Wheatear 2

Wheatear on Red Nab

Wheatear out from the foreshore 

Linnet c80 around the saltmarsh 

Middleton Nature Reserve (Malcolm)

Just a quick look at the two main ponds revealed Tufted Duck numbers still increasing 

Tufted Duck 54 (37 on the main pond and 17 on the "no swimming" pond)

Tufted Ducks were the only wildfowl seen on the "no swimming" pond the following all on the main pond.

Gadwall 16

Teal 8

Mallard 34

Little Grebe 2 

Coot 10

Moorhen 2

Mute Swan female with 7 well grown cygnets 

A nice variety of ducks on the main pond

Some of the Tufted Ducks on the "no swimming" pond

Tufted Duck

Some good stuff, but some long gaps between them

Very strong SW wind with heavy showers continued though the night and morning the wind moving to NW by mid afternoon.

From Ocean Edge - Pete (M) to 09:00

Gannet 1 adult

Sabine's Gull 1 juvenile on the seaward end of No.2 outfall then towards the wooden jetty. Lost as the visibility closed in.

Tom Walkington saw a juvenile Sabine's gull out from the North sea wall a little earlier. Likely the same bird.

North sea wall - Shaun Coyle 09:30-14:30:

Gannet 2 adults in

Shag 4 juvs out

Shelduck c.75 out

Wigeon c.90 out

Pintail 14 out plus 15 distant ducks that were almost certainly Pintail too.

Teal 17 out

Eider 12 

Common Scoter female out

Goosander female out (this makes it seven duck species today)

Ringed Plover 3 out

Grey Plover 11 out

Sanderling 2 out

Great Skua out at 14:00

Mediterranean Gull 2 1cy out

Little Gull adult out

Sabine's Gull juv in at 12:05 (probably a second bird)

Fulmar 1 out

Heysham Head - David Yates

Little Gull 1 juvenile 

Stone Jetty - Dan Haywood

The following is an excerpt from Dan's report posted on LDBWS webpage. Link below if you want to see the full report and Dan's excellent shots including the GND.

https://lancasterbirdwatching.org.uk/forums/topic/morecambe-jetty-0920-1250/#

09:20 - 12:50

Wigeon 45 in, 62 out

Pintail 5 in, 66 out (probably some overlap with Shaun's birds)

Shelduck 29 out

Common Scoter 17 in, 4 out

Pink-footed Goose 13 in

Eider 11 in

Teal 4 in

Little Gull 3 out (one ad) (possibly including David's juvenile)

Red-throated Diver 2 in then out

Leach’s Petrel 2 out 

Gannet 1 in

Kittiwake 1 in then out

Sabine’s Gull 1 in, 1 out an hour later (which I took to be the same juv.)

Purple Sandpiper 1 out

Great Northern Diver 1 out (it also flew high over the North sea wall 15 minutes later seen by Emma Kelly)

I had a walk along the south sea wall (Malcolm) 10:00 - 12:00

I saw nothing over the sea, that isn't already covered in the above reports, so just a few shots to show the conditions 

Pintail 

Shelduck 

End of the wooden jetty still being favoured for a roost by both Cormorants 
and Shag. I saw two juvenile Shag battle their way to it against a wind that I
could barely stand in!

This juvenile Shag was in the relative calm of the harbour mouth. Not a great clip, but perhaps portrays the conditions better than a picture.

When it set off to fly to the wooden jetty, it was making no headway, at one point it was just a couple of metres over my head flapping furiously and going nowhere!

I wasn't much better......clicking furiously but couldn't quite get it in focus.
It dropped down low past the lighthouse and eventually managed to reach
the wooden jetty

I managed a better shot of the second bird, despite it being further out.
This one flew directly to the wooden jetty. 

Wigeon 56 on Red Nab

Wheatear 2

Rock Pipit 2

Wet and windy!

The south wind was light to begin with but freshened quickly from mid morning. Very strong by the afternoon but still a bit SE till evening when it began to move to SW. the rain had the decency to hold off till mid morning, then the showers became increasing heavy, prolonged and frequent.

South shore (Malcolm) 09:00 - 11:00

I went out from the saltmarsh high up the shore, then back along the waterline.

There were no waders feeding high up the shore, but plenty along the waterline, surprisingly no Knot or Godwits.

Curlew 160

Oystercatcher 150

Grey Plover 75

Dunlin 64

It was easier counting today as most of the waders were just resting.

Most of the Grey Plover and Dunlin

Grey Plover in the foreground.
The small boat is the pilot boat returning to the harbour after guiding the ship out

Grey Plover

The Grey Plover in the middle is still largely in summer plumage 

Closer to the saltmarsh 

Redshank 30

Lapwing 34

Lapwings

Shelduck 100+ in front of the foreshore, many more visible further south.

 

There were at least 2 juvenile Shelduck

Mediterranean gull 2 adults resting on the shore

Mediterranean gull

It started raining as I was heading back to the saltmarsh, it never really stopped again.

Linnet 60 on saltmarsh 

Wheatear 1 on the foreshore 

Wigeon 92 counted around Red Nab but others would have been out of sight.

Wigeon. This was about as good as the light got today. The world was in monochrome!

The Fox Moth caterpillar was no more than a 1m from where I left it yesterday. It was happily chomping on some trefoil.

Once again, as I tried to demonstrate size, it curled into a ball, but this shot
does give an idea. I have very long fingers.

I couldn't resist a walk along the sea wall this afternoon. I wasn't optimistic as the wind was SSE and the tide out. The wind was very strong by this time and the rain constant and heavy. There was nothing on the outfalls and I couldn't see anything on the sea. On the way back I couldn't see anything at all with the wind driving the rain into my face. The wind should be SW overnight and in the morning, so hopefully something will be blown in.

Yellow Brow just makes it before the weather changes

It remained dry with sunny spells. A light SE breeze to begin with but freshening. By the evening the forecasted showers started.

Heysham Nature Reserve 

Report by Alan:

This morning was the last possible mist netting day for the next week with westerly winds forecast.

I set just two nets by the office building from 09.00 to around 13.30 with 61 birds captured.

The nets were then taken down as larger numbers of local retraps were being caught and the wind was becoming too strong.

The majority caught were Goldfinches (20 ringed plus 14 retraps).  Small numbers of Dunnock, Goldcrest, Chiffchaff, Chaffinch, Greenfinch, Long-tailed Tit, Great Tit and Blue Tit were also trapped.

 

The star of the morning was a Yellow-browed Warbler caught and ringed with colour rings as part of a National project to help learn more about The Autumnal movements of the species and their wintering grounds.

Yellow-browed Warbler 

South shore (Malcolm) 08:30 -09:00

Just a quick check from the saltmarsh to Red Nab

Linnet 45

Wheatear 6

Reed Bunting 1

Wheatears

Reed Bunting

Shelduck 300+ they were everywhere!

Just a fraction of the Shelduck 

Wigeon 50+ around Red Nab, many obscured by the rocks.

Wigeon and Shelduck

This caterpillar was behind the foreshore rocks. It was huge! I estimated 7.5cm

I placed it on a rock, expecting it to crawl off and show its full length.
But it curled up in a ball and played dead! I returned it to safe cover.
It turned out to be a caterpillar of a Fox Moth.

Middleton Nature Reserve (Janet)

2 Roe deer, Migrant Hawker and Common Darter

Good to see the pond full of ducks and a Cormorant but very frustrating having no camera... 

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

It was quiet out here today. The only birds seen on the sea were Cormorants, gulls and a single Eider.

Immature Eider

Little Egret 4

Gulls 50

Oystercatcher 600 (it's never really quiet with this many Oystercatcher around you!)

Curlew 45

Redshank 80

Knot 16

Turnstone 60

Ringed Plover 7

Oystercatcher and Knot

Not many waders, but they were interesting ones

Some heavy overnight rain and showers all morning. A dry afternoon with a bit of evening sunshine.

Middleton Nature Reserve (Malcolm)

Just a passing check of the two main ponds this afternoon

The "no swimming" pond has returned to its normal height. The blackened 
vegetation shows the level it had been. There were 8 Tufted Ducks, 2 Gadwall
and two Moorhen on it this afternoon.

On the main pond:

Female Mute Swan with 7 cygnets

31 Tufted Duck (39 total)

6 Gadwall (8 total)

Mallard 23

Some of the Mallard were on the east banking. Waiting for someone to
arrive and feed them. They didn't have to wait long!

Female Mallard

Female and male Gadwall

Moorhen 4 (6 total)

Coot 14 - at this time of year it is difficult to tell if the Coot are fighting or courting. Their courtship isn't genteel! In this clip there is probably a bit of both going on.

South shore (Malcolm)

I set out from Potts Corner again. It was 14:25, just 1.5hr after low water. But we are on neap tides so the tide doesn't go as far as spring tides. Even so it was a long walk out to the waterline and it was 15:20 before I reached the recording area (although I was distracted on the way out, more on this later).

Shelduck 150 minimum, this lot decided to head south, there are 125 in this clip.

The only waders in the recording area were:

Oystercatcher 60

Curlew just 5 initially on the shore, another 80 had joined them by the time I finished.

Dunlin 11

Sanderling 38 - two groups of 30 and 8. All 30 are in this clip, which ends on the 11 Dunlin. They are feeding on the tiny snails that are currently abundant on the wet sections of shore.

After feeding a while they flew south

The other 8 were closer to the sea wall

All 8 Sanderlings in this shot

This one was ringed, no chance of reading it of course

And that was it.

Just out of the recording area - just out from Potts Corner (Malcolm)

Curlew Sandpiper 3 juveniles

Juvenile Curlew Sandpipers

This clip shows their white rumps

You can see them picking up the tiny snails in this clip. Normally on neap tides this far up the shore, the mud is dry and the snails burrow below the surface, just leaving a telltale "pimple" of mud. But the rain overnight and throughout the morning had left plenty of wet areas. Every black speck is a snail.

It was almost 17:00 by the time I got back to Potts, by that time some of
the mud had dried, and the snails were under the surface again. Every pimple
hides a snail.

Knot favouring the south side

A dry day with sunny spells. A light SE breeze

 

Heysham Nature Reserve 

Ringing report by Jean:

The weather forecast didn't look that promising, one said windy from the south, another said rain first thing. In reality it was a SE wind, not too strong and cloudy - ideal for ringing! So I stuck 3 nets up and caught 73 birds! 13 species as follows:

Goldfinch 15 new, 8 retraps (all since August)

Long-tailed Tit 8 new (one flock)

Goldcrest 5 new, 2 retraps (from 25/9)

Blue Tit 6 new, 1 retrap (from July)

Chaffinch 5 new, 1 retrap (October 2024 and March this year - regular winter visitor?)

Greenfinch 5 new, 1 retrap (from July)

Chiffchaff 3 new

Coal Tit 3 new, 1 retrap (recent)

Grey Wagtail 4 new (colour rings added)

Great Tit 3 retraps (one from July, two very recent)

Robin 2 new

Blackcap 1 new (male)

Dunnock 1 new

Heysham skear (Malcolm) 10:45 - 12:00

Very low neap tides again, so very little of the skear was exposed.

Eider 2 female

Great Crested grebe 4

Shag at least 1 juvenile 

Resting Shag, with Piel Castle in the background 

Little Egret 4

Gulls 50 mainly Herring gulls and mostly adult or sub-adult. They have stopped eating the small mussels whole and are dropping large ones to open them.

Herring gull with a mussel. They take some breaking open at this size!

This clip is from yesterday 

Oystercatcher 300

Curlew 45

Redshank 180

Knot 25 (14, 6, 4 and 1)

Turnstone 60

Ringed Plover 19

Juvenile Knot

South shore (Malcolm) 15:15 - 16:15

Just a check of the waterline out from Ocean Edge. 

Shelduck 152 - they were spread all over the shore in all directions. The shore is covered in tiny snails which also attract the Knot and Dunlin.

Oystercatcher 80

Curlew 100

Bar-Tailed Godwit 40

Grey Plover 9

Knot 2000

Dunlin 500

Some of the Godwits

Five of the Knot were flagged, but I only managed to read one of them

Apart from the Oystercatcher, they were all very flighty and soon left to the south.

Bar-Tailed Godwits, Knot and Grey Plover

A line of Knot past the StenaLine

There's always one that doesn't notice that all the rest have gone! Dunlin

Cormorants heading back to the wooden jetty