A light west(ish) wind. Mainly overcast with the odd sunny spell, but it did remain dry after early morning rain.
Pete did a couple of early checks:
from back of the harbour looking through harbour mouth 0735-0835. Calmer than expected and light poor:
single ad Little gull
flock 22 Kittiwake
3 Red-throated diver
4 Common Scoter
single razorbill or guillemot.
All inbound
singing rock pipit
single Harbour porpoise
From Ocean Edge
Pale-bellied Brent goose 98 on Red Nab- this is the highest count so far this winter period
Ad plus 2Cy Kittiwake Heysham 2 outfall
Janet had a walk around later
Wheatear 4 quickly moved along the foreshore to Red Nab
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| This male was carrying food. Clearly not to feed any young, perhaps an offering for a mate |
Rock Pipit 1 on Red Nab
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| Rock Pipit |
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| Male Chaffinch in the Nature Park |
Great Spotted-Woodpecker 1 male along the path at the southern edge of Middleton Nature Reserve
Middleton Nature Reserve
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| Pairs of Shoveler and Gadwall on the spit |
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| Male Gadwall |
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| One of two male Mallards, no sign of the females |
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| This Little Grebe was being chased by a Coot |
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| Male Greenfinch under the feeders |
Heysham Skear - Malcolm 14:00 - 15:45
Pale-bellied Brent all over again. Most seen at one time was 74, but presumably most of what Pete counted would have been around.
As well as the Brent in this clip you can see Knot and Oystercatcher amongst the rough terrain of the skear.
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| It was quite hazy, and the sunlight filtering through the mist seemed to make it harder to see. Makes for atmospheric shots though! |
Eider 55
Red-breasted Merganser 5
Little Egret 2
Osprey 1 (not too long ago this would be highlighted in red, but there has been a significant increase in the frequency of sightings in recent years. So much so that at one point last year one was classified as "a nuisance" when its arrival spooked the Mediterranean gulls!).
At 15:15 all the birds on the skear lifted and started screaming (don't think they regarded it as just a nuisance, although in fact Ospreys are no threat to birds at all). Unfortunately the Osprey was in front of the hazy sunlight making for difficult seeing, but this clip paints the picture as the Oystercatchers quickly move it on. It continued NW across the bay.
It's difficult to say how many Knot there were. Initially there were 1500 on the skear, then about half of these flew north. I was checking the remaining birds on the northern edge when the Osprey lifted everything. When everything settled again there were at least 1200 sat in a freshwater runoff in the southern corner. Some if not all of these would have been additional, possibly spooked from further south by the passing Osprey.
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| Just a few of the Knot in the freshwater runoff. They then flew to western edge of the skear. No point in trying to follow them. A few flagged birds were seen earlier, but no new ones. |
