Little gull, but little else on the sea

The SW wind continues but not as strong. Showers in the morning, then increasingly bright as the day progressed.

Heysham north wall 0715-0815 - Pete:

The only thing of interest before the weather closed in and the wind went fractionally round to almost SSW (as per harbour turbine) was an adult little gull wheeling into the Bay at 0720hrs

(Three 1st w little gull seen by mark Prestwood at teal bay 1100hrs probably flew out past heysham)

Nature Park - Kevin Eaves:

Green Woodpecker "singing" near the pond

Middleton Nature Reserve - Janet

Still 2 pairs of Shoveler on the main pond

Reed Bunting 

Coal Tit - both by the feeders at the bottom car park

Two Roe Deer at Imperial Rd, a young buck and a female

Heysham skear - Malcolm 12:30 13:30

Barely any skear exposed even at "low" water. We are on neap tides and the SW wind holding back the ebbing tide.

Pale-bellied Brent goose 39 at least feeding and resting. The gutweed here isn't lush but it is plentiful and there is little disturbance.

No Eider seen

Red-breasted Merganser 4

Male Red-breasted Merganser

This female has caught a flatfish, they normally catch small round fish and crabs. This flattie looked to be too wide for her gape, but she tried her best.

She was stuck like this for a while, later a gull flew down and appeared to
pinch it, so I suspect that she eventually gave up

Not a lot of waders, there wasn't a lot of space!

Oystercatcher 300

Curlew 2

Bar-Tailed Godwit 2

Redshank 30

Knot 350 - including a flagged bird seen here last November and then in northwest Ireland in February. The ringing/flagging schemes allow a better understanding of not just long distance movement, but also local and mid distance movement. The objective, of course, is to identify key areas for the birds, so that preservation of certain areas and habitat can help safeguard the birds for the future. For their benefit, and our pleasure!

Turnstone 40

Dunlin 30

Dunlin and Knot

Bar-Tailed Godwit, Knot, Turnstone and Oystercatcher
and a Redshank's shanks

A stronger wind but fewer seabirds seen

The strong SW wind continued to freshen overnight and throughout the morning, peaking at gusts of 45mph (measured inland) at 11:20. The worst of the rain holding off till this afternoon.

Knowlys Rd - Mark Prestwood

Gannet 3 out at 10:00

Pale-bellied Brent goose 30-40

Pete checked from the back of the harbour 10:40 - 11:10

Kittiwake c40 lifted and landed again about Kent channel range, as seen from stone jetty at 1025 

Sea wall - Malcolm 14:00 - 15:00

It was still very wild particularly when the strong squalls drove the rain horizontal. 

Wigeon only 90 around Red Nab

Curlew battling against the wind - goodness knows how!

At least these Redshank were flying with the wind as they headed for the
shelter of the inner harbour 

Just a handful of Cormorants hunkered down on the wooden jetty 

Rock Pipit 1 near the lighthouse 

Middleton Nature Reserve - Malcolm 15:30

Main pond

Mute Swan pair plus 1 immature 

Shoveler 2 pairs

Tufted Duck 2 pairs

Mallard 3 males

Coot 4

"no swimming" pond

Mute Swan pair

Mallard pair plus 1 male

Tufted Duck 23 - 16 male 7 female

Teal 2 males

Coot 2 presumably a pair, they were friendly and Coot aren't noted for their friendly personality, and they certainly never look friendly.

Most of the Tufted Ducks, just a pair missing, that were keeping themselves 
to themselves 

Even in this low level pond surrounded by high overgrown bankings, the effect of the wind was considerable.

Kevin Singleton took this nice shot of a Coot in yesterday's sunshine 

Just out of the recording area - Bypass Rookery update - Mark Jones

Just arrived back at the van after nearly 2 weeks, checked the rookery on the bay gateway whilst leaving last time and there was absolutely no sign of any activity.
Just passed on the way here and there are at least 12 well built nests on the site, they must have been extremely busy!

At last, some wind blown stuff!

Very heavy overnight rain, but a dry and largely sunny day. A strong WSW wind

Gannet 6 out - David Kaye

Pete checked a little later 09:40 - 10:40

Gannet 5  - 11 total for the morning 

Kittiwake 55 in the first 30 minutes including 3 first winter. Further 23 plus 38 inbound kittiwakes - second flock gaining height. 116 total

The earlier four inbound gannet gang heading out.  

In these low neaps with fresh Sw winds you can seawatch off Heysham  at low tide with eg no sandbanks putting stuff off entering the bay.

Stronger SW winds expected tomorrow.

I had a walk along the sea wall this afternoon - Malcolm

Wigeon 220 by No.2 outfall

Wigeon

Rock Pipit 2 - 1 each Red Nab and No.1 outfall 

Shag 1 adult flew from the harbour to the wooden jetty

Adult Shag looking fine in the sunshine 

There was nothing at all feeding on the outfalls.

Middleton Nature Reserve - Janet

There were 3 male and at least 2 female Shoveler on the main pond

Several Teal on Tim Butler pond

This Long-Tailed Tit was busy collecting nest material 

Not sure what this Crow has, it's too early for natural fruit and berries 

Flies sp

Drone fly sp. No butterflies seen today, but plenty of Bees

These shots by Kevin Singleton 

Tufted Duck, drake above

A handsome looking Blue Tit

Goosander still around

Overcast, but the rain held off till early evening (we have evenings again!). A freshening south to SW wind.

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Kevin Eaves - many of the Tufted ducks have moved on. The 15 or so still remaining, split between the main and "no swimming" ponds, and were mainly males.

Male Goosander still showing nicely on the "no swimming" pond.

Goosander

Janet advises that the Mute Swan pair on the main pond are beginning to build a nest platform 

The frog tadpole embryos in the pond on the southern section 
are already quite well developed 

Heysham skear - Malcolm 09:30 - 12:00

Checked on the incoming tide

Pale-bellied Brent goose 26

Brent geese finding plenty of pockets of gutweed here

Eider 12

Red-breasted Merganser 2

Shag 1 adult

It was the king or queen of conger rock for a while

But later dethroned by a Cormorant 

I was out longer than my normal walk here today, mainly as there were 3000+ Knot, but they were very flighty and choosing to feed in the more difficult areas to check them for flags. These are some of them resettling after lifting in a false alarm. You can see how rough the terrain is where they land.

I eventually managed to read some flags, including two new ones for this winter

Treecreeper passing through

A dry, but overcast day with a light SE breeze.

Heysham Nature Reserve - Alan

It was a possible morning for some early spring migrants so I set a couple of nets at Heysham from just after dawn.  It was damp and a little breezy but a Treecreeper, Chiffchaff and two Goldcrests were caught early on.

The feeder ride was not too successful as the light southerly breeze was billowing the net.  Lots of finches were eyeing up the feeders from the adjacent trees but were rather put off by the moving net.

The catch list was:

Chiffchaff  1

Goldcrest  2

Treecreeper  1 - First ever unringed therefore implicitly passage treecreeper in spring 

Greenfinch  5 + 1 retrap

Coal Tit  2

Goldfinch  5 + 1 retrap

Great Tit  1 + 3 retraps

Robin  2 retraps

Dunnock  1 retrap

Long tailed Tit  1 + 2 retraps

Blue Tit  3 retraps

South shore - Kevin Eaves

Several Brent Geese and Wigeon still on Red Nab

Grey Plover on No.1 outfall

Middleton Nature Reserve - Malcolm

Mute Swan, a pair of adults on both the main and "no swimming" ponds. An immature also on the main pond.

Goosander 1 male on the "no swimming" pond

Shoveler pair on main pond

No Gadwall seen.

Tufted Duck, an impressive 34. 6 on the main pond plus 28 on the "no swimming" pond

Mallard 6 on the main pond 2 on the "no swimming" plus 3 flying around 

Coot 8

Moorhen 7 including 3 on/around the fence pond

 

Goosander

The Shoveler pair resting on the peninsula 

Tufted Duck pair

Some of the Tufted on the "no swimming" pond

The grunts in this clip are the Mute pair politely explaining that I am not welcome!

I startled this Moorhen along the road next to the fence pond. Don't think it's the sharpest bill in the brood, as it decided that squeezing through the fence was its best option!

It eventually gave up and half climbed, half flew over the top.

The only warblers heard were 4 Cetti's. 1 by the main pond plus 3 in the central marshes