Barn Owl encore

Another freezing night followed by a cold but sunny day. A light NE breeze.

South shore

Janet had a walk along the sea wall, and is now recovered enough from her injury to use her larger lens.

This Black-Headed gull seems to have found a razor clam. There is no way
it could have caught it. The clam must have washed in dead.

It was clearly pleased with its find

Wigeon heading towards Red Nab as the tide rose

Redshank

Black-Headed gulls and a Redshank on No.2 outfall

Little Egret fishing 

In the Nature Park

Long-Tailed Tit

Goldfinch 

I had walked out to the waterline and was walking in with the tide (Malcolm)

Bar-Tailed Godwit 180

Grey Plover 1

Knot 2,000+

Dunlin 60

Solitary Grey Plover

Knot and Dunlin in tight formation

More Knot were arriving all the time.

Dunlin, Knot and a Bar-Tailed Godwit

Common and Black-Headed gulls, Knot and Dunlin.
And out at focus at the back, Bar-Tailed Godwit and an Oystercatcher 

The tide was pushing them up the shore quickly, in order of leg length. Dunlin first, Knot then Bar-Tailed Godwit. The brown foam is perfectly natural spume. Just the bubbles produced by protein molecules as the waves break. They begin as pure white, but become brown as they pass over the mud.

For most of the time, most of the Knot were in the water, but the tide was coming in very quickly now and causing them to rush along the mud.

It was all a bit frantic, but I did manage to read at least six colour coded Knot.

This Knot is part of a Dutch based ringing scheme - details awaited 

Eventually some of the Godwit and Knot ended up just out from the saltmarsh 

Shelduck 45

Pale-bellied Brent goose 6 on Red Nab

Brent geese and Wigeon.
You can see the pure white bubbles (spume) being created in the background 

On saltmarsh 

Lapwing 7

Reed Bunting 3

Linnet 15

Rock Pipit 1 plus 1 on Red Nab

Middleton Nature Reserve (Malcolm)

I went to the hill on the southern section just after the sunset to see if the Barn Owl returned. It arrived at 15:58 a few minutes earlier than yesterday and slightly lighter. Unfortunately still light enough for people to be exercising their dogs and two were, so the owl didn't stay to hunt just here, although I'm sure it would have done later.

Barn Owl

Barn Owl bonus

A light, but very cold NE breeze. Cloudy for most of the day, but it remained dry and the sun came out late afternoon.

Heysham skear - low water 07:40(Malcolm)

Pale-bellied Brent goose 2 in SE skear corner.

Pale-bellied Brent geese - later, likely the same, two were on Red Nab

Eider 3

Red-breasted Merganser 3

Great Crested grebe 6

Little Egret 4

Oystercatcher, Curlew, Redshank and Turnstone in similar numbers to recent.

Knot just 25 on the skear, but a large flock c1,500 was seen to the south, they appeared to be heading for the skear, but disappeared, probably headed back to the south side.

Dunlin 3 - 1 with the Knot the other 2 close inshore 

Dunlin - looking like I felt!

Ringed Plover 6 close inshore 

Ringed Plover

Middleton Nature Reserve (Malcolm)

I went to the south side this "evening" (15:30!) to see what was was coming in to roost. It turned out to be quite productive.

Carrion Crow 6

Jackdaw 120+

Wood Pigeon 6

Stock Dove 19 minimum, likely 24 - only three had arrived until the last rays of the sun was turning everything red, then several groups arrived in quick succession.

Stock Doves right and Jackdaws

Stock Doves turned red by the setting sun.

It all seemed to have stopped when the sun set, but I couldn't be sure there wasn't more to arrive. I was watching from the hill on the west side of the southern section, It was too cold to stand around any longer so I walked south along the crest of the hill and then back again. Nothing else had come in to roost, but when I returned to where I was watching from, a Barn Owl was hunting!

It wasn't easy getting a decent shot as it was quite dark by this time, and it was moving quite quickly. But amazingly, I did manage a half decent clip (It was darker than this clip makes it look)

Didn't catch anything that time, but this is ideal hunting terrain and worth checking again on another dry evening.

Five Jacks

Below 0°C overnight leaving extensive morning frost. Some sunny spells during the day but the temperature never exceeded 3°C (midnight was the "warmest" part of the day at 3.2°C). Very light east breeze, totally calm at times.

Heysham skear - low water 07:00 (Malcolm)

I walked out 90 minutes after low water and the tide was already making quickly.

Pale-bellied goose 3 feeding in the SE corner.

Pale-bellied Brent geese

No dark-bellied seen today

Eider 12

Red-breasted Merganser 7

A precession of Mergansers and Eider being swept in along the main tidal run

The mergansers stayed to feed 

Great Crested grebe 9 feeding individuals 

Little Egret 11

Oystercatcher, Curlew, Redshank and Turnstone as recent. Just a small flock c30 Knot

The Turnstone trust their excellent camouflage in this terrain, you almost 
have to stand on them before they move. These were only 3m away, even
so totally invisible from above

A dusting of snow on some of the South Lakes' peaks

South shore - high water 12:30 (Malcolm)

This is this morning's moon. Moving away from full to a waning gibbous.
This means we have past the peak of spring tide heights. The sea birds know
this too, some possibly by the moon phases, or just by noting that today's high
tide is lower than yesterday's.

Jack Snipe 5 individuals flushed from the edge of the saltmarsh as I walked around it. The last time I saw Jack snipe flushed from the marsh the tides were getting higher, and both birds flew directly towards Middleton Nature Reserve. Today all five landed back on the marsh edges, fortunately where I had already passed, so no risk of duplication. They "knew" the tide wasn't going to flush them again for some while.

Common Snipe 23, these did fly towards Middleton Nature Reserve 

Linnet 15

Reed Bunting 6 at least

Reed Buntings

Rock Pipit 3 - 2 along foreshore and 1 on Red Nab

Rock Pipit in darker winter plumage

In the Nature Park

Chiffchaff 1 calling

Still several Blackbirds 

Song Thrush 1

Song Thrush

Kevin had a walk along the sea wall, and despite the low temperatures there was a resting Silver Y

Silver Y

Brents still obliging

A fresh west wind veered to the north after lunch. By evening the wind had dropped to almost nothing. Heavy and regular showers all day.

North Shore (Pete Crooks)

Dark-bellied Brent goose 2

Pale-bellied Brent goose 4

On this morning's rising tide, seen from Knowlys Rd

South shore (Malcolm)

A walk along the sea wall on the rising tide.

The Brent geese flew from the north side to Red Nab at 09:50. They didn't stay long on Red Nab as they had already moved on when I walked back. There is more sea lettuce high up the shore towards Potts corner, and only gutweed on Red Nab.

All six flew together, but still appeared to be two sub groups of 
two Pale-bellied with one dark bellied

Shelduck just 7 resting on the mud

Wigeon 180+

Little Egret 4

Grey Heron 2

Two Heron resting on the wooden jetty

This Cormorant was "playing" with a feather for over a minute 

Before finally deciding to let it go.

Lapwing 28 were resting on the mud out from the saltmarsh before heading south

Lapwing

Kingfisher 1 flew south across Red Nab then lost

A view showing Red Nab just as the tide was reaching it.
Also a typical view of today's weather.

Pink-Footed goose 1 smallish skein low to the south over my house 16:50 (Malcolm)

And then there were two

It remained dry with sunny spells till heavy showers began in the afternoon. A light west wind.

Red Nab to Saltmarsh towards morning's high water (Malcolm)

Pale-bellied Brent goose 4

Wigeon 160

Pale-bellied Brent geese and Wigeon

One of the Oystercatcher was ringed as part of an Icelandic ringing scheme.
Details awaited

Another "identifiable" Oystercatcher was this regular with a 
partially leucistic head

Linnet 16 and Reed Bunting 2 at the saltmarsh 

Reed Bunting showing off its tail feathers

Common Snipe 14 flushed by the rising tide

Knot 45 south

Most of the Wigeon moved to the saltmarsh, it was sheltered from wind noise here, so I took a clip to capture the males whistling.

Heysham skear (Malcolm)

I went down as the ebbing tide was exposing the skear this afternoon, unfortunately coinciding with the only heavy showers of the day!

Knot 1 small flock of c40 flying around

Dunlin 2

Little Egret 10

Most of the Little Egret were feeding on the south side of the skear today

Great Crested grebe 5 at least

Eider 3

Pale-bellied Bret goose 4

Dark-bellied Brent goose 2

When I was walking out (it was chucking it down!) there were just 2 pale-bellied and a dark-bellied in the SE skear corner. I had to walk past them then turn around with the rain to my back to get any pictures.

Dark-bellied Brent goose eating sea lettuce

A little later I noticed 2 pale and 1 dark-bellied on the sea,
 and assumed something had spooked them. But seemingly not.

The rain was relentless and so I called it a day, but fortunately I decided to walk back the same way instead of along the north side. In the SE corner now were 2 dark-bellied and 4 pale-bellied.

The two dark-bellied (far left and right) and three of the pale-bellied

The dark-bellied on the left had just seemed to notice the one on the right. It wasn't bothered about the pale-bellied there but was having nothing of the other dark-belled, and charged over to see it off!

These last two shots are poor quality, but they do convey the apparent vitriol
accompanying the attack. The vanquished bird settled 100m away and they both
resumed feeding. I returned home for an early bath!