Some in, some out and some through

Overnight frost, then a dry sunny day. A light NE-NW breeze

Meldon Road - Janet, just after sunrise 

Just some of the Pink-Footed geese on the fields just beyond Meldon Rd.
The geese are actually just outside the recording area, but visible from the
railway bridge that marks the boundary.

Imperial Road - Malcolm 10:15 -11:15

I went to see if I could find yesterday's mystery passerine. I only spotted it when I prepared the deer clip for yesterday's post, so too late to return then. I wasn't optimistic as Pete had advised that last night was going to be a "departure night". And so it proved to be, but at least we got some stuff in that had departed from elsewhere.

Meadow Pipit 9 were feeding on the horse paddock beyond the marsh, 7 then continued south

Stonechat 2. A male and a female type. They definitely weren't there yesterday. 

Female/first winter Stonechat 

Male Stonechat 

Very distinctive in flight

Cetti's warbler 1 seen briefly 

Water Rail at least two squealing plus contact calls

This Blackbird was eating Hawthorn berries, but quite particular as to which ones. A Water Rail is squealing at the beginning of the clip.

Raven 1 flew north

Kestrel 1

Middleton Nature Reserve - main pond (Janet)

Everything pretty much the same

Heysham Skear (Malcolm) 12:30 - 14:30

Pale-bellied Brent geese 15 flew into the SE skear corner. This corner is fed by a freshwater runoff, even so it would be quite salty where they landed, but they each had a drink before looking for food. They could have easily found quite fresh water a few meters above the waterline.

They are silhouetted as the sun was quite low in the south.

They then moved onto the shore looking for, and finding, broken weed to eat.

Eider 40+

Red-breasted Merganser 2

Red-breasted Merganser

Great Crested Grebe 4

Little Egret 6

Shag at least 2 juveniles 

A Shag with two Eider

Oystercatcher 800

Oystercatchers looking like Bookends. 
I wonder how long it will be before anyone knows what bookends are?

Curlew 18

Curlew Knot and Oystercatcher 

Redshank 150+

This Redshank has found a large Brown Shrimp. It isn't often in nature that
things die of old age, but I suspect that is what has happened to this shrimp.
There is no way a live shrimp that size would be in such clear shallow open
water. Shrimps grow by shedding their exoskeleton. But there are a finite
number of moults, after that they have nowhere to go.

It was certainly a treat worth working on, for the Redshank. Note that when it finishes, it then picks up all the legs etc, that came off the shrimp.

Knot 3,000, but mainly resting in the rocky areas. I did manage to read some new flagged birds, including the first Norwegian scheme this winter

A Norwegian scheme flagged Knot.
Not a Scottish one that the code might suggest.

Turnstone 40

Dunlin 20

Dunlin

Ringed Plover 8

Peregrine Falcon two attacks on the Knot.

A bit more variety today

A sunny morning but more overcast in the afternoon. A light NE breeze, but it was a cool one.

Imperial Rd (Malcolm) 11:00

Water Rail 1 squealing

Dunnock

Robin

Grey Heron

One of two Roe Deer

Not sure what the passerine is that they disturbed at the end of this clip.

This is where the passerine ends up in the clip. Plenty of things that it isn't!

This fox was also on the move.

Heysham skear (Malcolm) 11:30 - 13:00

Pink-Footed goose 56 south in one skein

Eider 45

Some of the Eider heading off to the north

Wigeon 14 milling around before heading south

Wigeon

Common Scoter 1 female type

Common Scoter

Red-breasted Merganser 2 female types

Red-breasted Mergansers

Great Crested Grebe 1

Shag at least 2 juveniles 

Juvenile Shag

Little Egret 6

Knot 3,000, there were a number of flagged birds amongst them, but only five new birds for this winter seen

Heysham Head (Janet)

Two of a flock of Long-Tailed Tits

Quite a faded Red Admiral 

Janet also took these clips of Pink-Footed geese arriving at the fields by Meldon Road this morning then the sounds of them leaving again this evening.

Better

It was 11:15 when the morning rain finally stopped. After that it remained dry, but overcast. A light NE wind.

Heysham skear (Malcolm)

I checked twice today 10:45 - 12:15 and 15:00 - 16:00

Pink-Footed goose 46 south this morning.

Pale-bellied Brent goose 6 - at least 5 flew directly to the rocks in front of the play area this morning, 6 were in the water this afternoon.

Four of the Brent heading for the play area rocks.
You can see the gutweed on the rocks (bottom of picture)

This afternoon's Brent geese

Eider 18

Great Crested Grebe 1

Little Egret 2

Shag at least 3 juveniles probably 4, this morning 

Three Shag, Eider behind and mainly Knot in front

Solitary Shag and the dredger's dump boat returning to the harbour 

There were c3000 Knot this morning, but we both stood still for 30 minutes while the rain stopped. When it did the tide was already quite a way out and the Knot followed. They were in awkward terrain but there seemed to be an influx of Icelandic flagged birds. I saw six, five of which were new for this winter.

When they are tightly packed like this, it doesn't matter what terrain they
are on, you can only see the legs of the outermost birds

There are more of these areas, where the mussel mat has been stripped off
the skear bottom, since this section of skear was last exposed. You can see 
the individual birds clearly, but very few legs.

I left them to it and returned later, c2000 had finished feeding and flew to the freshwater runoff in the skear corner to freshen up. Still little chance of seeing flagged individuals. These are just some of them.

This Oystercatcher is also part of an Icelandic scheme - details awaited

Bar-Tailed Godwit 4 this afternoon 

Bar-Tailed Godwit (2 of these in the Brent on the water shot above)

Dunlin 15 this afternoon 

Dunlin

Where did everything go? Including the colour!

A very cold NE fresh wind. Light showers on and off all day.

Just my stuff so far today (Malcolm). There was "light" rain all the while I was out. Technically it wasn't heavy rain, but it was wind driven and stinging!

Heysham skear 09:30

I went to see if the Knot were still around, but there wasn't one as the skear was becoming exposed. I couldn't see any Brent geese either. 10 Eider on the sea and a couple of Little Egrets were the only birds other than the usual waders.

Middleton Nature Reserve main pond 10:00

Mute Swan female with 6 cygnets flying around.

Mallard c25

Tufted Duck 8

Gadwall 8

Little Grebe 1

Coot 13

Moorhen 2

Cormorant 2

Gadwall pair plus Little grebe

Tufted Duck

Cormorants, Mallard and a Coot

Imperial Rd 10:15

Pink-Footed geese flying silently into the wind

Little Egret 

Great Spotted Woodpecker 1 flew towards the copse

Wood Pigeon 8 including 2 juveniles 

Juvenile Wood Pigeon (front) with adult 

South shore 10:30 - 11:00

A walk from the saltmarsh to No.2 outfall and back through the Nature Park.

Sparrowhawk 1 flew across the saltmarsh, the only passerines seen were 8 Starlings

Shelduck 80. It was still raining and my camera was stashed away. As I fumbled to get it out I inadvertently set it to monochrome, it was such a grey day that I didn't notice!

Shelduck feeding out from the foreshore. Even if I had been in glorious 
Technicolour, the only colour would be the Shelduck's red bill and brown bib.

They feed a while filtering snails and other invertebrates from the mud,
then head for one of the freshwater runoffs for a drink

Perhaps understandable not noticing the Little Egret was in monochrome 

But I should have noticed with a Curlew, although B&W does 
produce interesting contrasts

Wigeon 50+ keeping out of the wind along the inner face of No.2 outfall

Chiffchaff calling in the Nature Park

I did a passing check in the afternoon from Knowlys Rd, I still couldn't seen any Knot or Brent geese. 

Camera reset for colour pictures again tomorrow. Hopefully there will be something worth photographing.

Footnote:

Juvenile kittiwake on outfalls reported on Lancaster wildlife and nature group 

Large Knot influx

Heavy overnight rain then a dry day with sunshine in the morning. Rain returned by evening. A light SW wind switched to NE this afternoon.

Heysham skear Malcolm 08:30 - 10:30

I went out just as the tide was exposing the inner skear, but there were already thousands of Knot waiting for the  feeding areas to become exposed. It is hard estimating numbers when they are spread out over a large area, and today there were no Peregrine attacks, while I was there, so the only flying birds seen were partial movement to feeding areas. There was certainly more than 5,000, and judging by the number of flagged birds seen, many more than that.

Knot covering the beginning of the inner skear

Just a fraction of the total number of Knot

I ended up reading 30 flagged birds from three different schemes covering England, Scotland, Wales, Holland and Iceland. 17 new birds for this autumn!

This one from a Wadden Sea scheme, Holland, is about to be obscured by
a flurry of birds landing

There must have been many flags that I didn't see, particularly when they
were resting. This UK scheme bird, ringed in Scotland, eventually showed 
enough of its flag to read it

They were easier to see when they were feeding. This is an Icelandic ringed bird

Eider 8

Some of the Eider bobbing in the waves

Red-breasted Merganser 3

Mergansers drifting past some resting Knot

Little Egret 3

No Shags seen today.

Cormorants 

Herring Gull, I haven't seen a ringed one for ages. There are still lots of small
mussels that they had been feeding on, the Knot are feeding on them now

A Swift sp was seen over Pilling Lane Ends this morning and looked to be heading towards Heysham. There is a chance of Pallid Swifts at this time of year. If you see a swift please try and take a photograph, as a picture is essential for positive identification. The head and throat regions are particularly important.