It was calm, before the storm!

Showers on and off all day. Very light winds in the morning before increasing to very strong from the NW after lunch, then easing again later.

I took advantage of a dry calm period mid morning (Malcolm)

South shore

Linnet 17 on the saltmarsh 

Reed Bunting 3 on the saltmarsh edges

Reed Bunting in a brief burst of sunshine 

I was going to check any wader along the waterline, but there were only Oystercatchers, so I didn't bother.

Closer to the Saltmarsh were 60 Redshank and 15 Dunlin

Redshank and Dunlin

Knot 37 flew to the north side

Shelduck c50 spread around 

The Shelduck on the right has a black swelling where you expect the male bill knob

Presumably, some sort of growth, and probably not good

Wigeon 130 counted, others would have been out of sight.

Male Wigeon moulting out of eclipse 

Just a few of the Wigeon here

Many more in this shot, but I took this just to show how calm it was at 09:45

Mediterranean gull, just 1 2nd calendar year bird seen with the Black-Headed gulls

2cy Mediterranean gull top centre, stubbornly refusing to show its face

Little Egret 4

Turnstone on a clump of red sandstone that gives Red Nab its name

Greenfinch 6

Rock Pipit 2 

Rock Pipit on the sea wall above Red Nab

I checked the old heliport area on my way home, by this time it was high water.

c2000 Oystercatcher, c200 Knot, 26 Redshank, 16 Lapwing, 3 Curlew and
5 Turnstone. Plus 1 Little Egret and 5 Common Snipe which flew from the grass.

Knot and Oystercatchers 

Lapwing, Curlew and Oystercatcher

Little Egret

Last serene day for a while

A wet start then a dry day with sunny spells. A west(ish) breeze

Janet had a walk from Middleton Nature Reserve to Ocean Edge

Two Roe Deer seen on the reserve 

One Chiffchaff singing

Tufted Ducks on the main pond

Gadwall pair, Coot and Mallard

Cormorant 

Lots of Black-Headed Gulls feeding on the outfalls. 

This Shelduck has a black ring, but the code obscured. The likely scheme has
been notified. One to watch out for

Rabbit enjoying the sun on Ocean Edge grass

Heysham skear - Malcolm 14:30 - 16:00

Shag 1 on Conger rock. 

It was on top of Conger as I walked out. King or Queen of the castle

But not for long.....

  .......dethroned by a Cormorant

Later it snook back on, but further down

Eider 3 - 1 adult male on the water and 2 flying around 

Eider in front of the harbour and Power Station

Immature Male Eider

Little Egret 6

Oystercatcher c1500

Quite a few of the Oystercatchers are metal ringed, but this one has two metal rings

Curlew 35

Redshank c300

Knot c500

Knot coming in to land. No colour marked birds seen

Turnstone 30

Looks like we are in for a wild and wet weekend!

Much of a muchness

Showers all day some with a hint of sunshine in between. A freshening wind became strong from the NW by evening.

Heysham Nature Reserve 

Summary by Pete

Poor morning but could be explained by the wind going too southerly and us being in a huge clear slot between two weather fronts at dawn with nothing to focus any passage here other than pink feet ex roost and a trickle of common stuff 

Details by Jean:

Although it was a disappointing day for ringing with only 10 birds caught, there was more to see migrating overhead:
Vismig 0700-1000
Pink-footed goose 1562 north, 1 south
Redwing 31 E
Fieldfare 14 S
Starling 70 N
Chaffinch 13 S
Greenfinch 5 S
Siskin 1 S
Meadow Pipit 1 S
Skylark 3 SE
Buzzard 1 S low mobbed by Carrion Crows then perhaps the same bird high E
Sparrowhawk 2M, 1 F - maybe local
A Cetti’s Warbler was heard 
Ringing
Blackbird 2
Coal Tit 2
Robin 2
Chiffchaff 1
Long-tailed Tit 1
Goldfinch 1 recent retrap
We packed up early at 10am as rain was forecast..

North shore

Heysham Head - David Kaye

With high tide only 7.14 m  Skear waders roosted on Heysham north shore, at least 

36 ringed plover 

1800 Knot 

2 Dunlin 

4 Canada geese south 

rock pipit and stonechat on Heysham head

Heysham skear - Malcolm 13:45 - 15:00

I had hoped that the sun would shine at some point. I hoped in vain!

This is 13:50. The StenaLine is heading in and the ferry heading out.
You can clearly see the lights shining on the ferry!

Pink-Footed Goose 45 SE

Shelduck 2 south

Eider pair south

Red-breasted Merganser 1

Shelduck 

This Peregrine Falcon left without hunting or with any prey. Presumably 
it had been feeding somewhere on the shore and left when it finished.

There were still c1000 Knot around the skear, other smaller flocks arrived (returned?) ending up with c2000. This flock gives a nice guided tour of the skear before settling 

Knot, no colour marked birds seen

Bar-Tailed Godwit 2

Bar-Tailed Godwit and Knot

Oystercatcher c1500

Oystercatcher, Knot and Redshank with a Red-breasted Merganser in the background 

Redshank c200

Redshank

Curlew 12

Turnstone 5

Ringed Plover 2

I'd stood out two short squalls, but a third mean looking one drove me off. The visibility varies quickly in these conditions......

This is Humphrey Head. It is a prominent limestone peninsula near Flookburgh,
but normally you can barely make it out from the mainland behind. This was 14:01

This is Humphrey Head at 14:04. Even here it is showing more obviously 
than typical 

Humphrey Head, it is a Nature Reserve. Looks like a line of Eider in front of it

Still loads of Sea Lettuce awaiting the first Brent Geese

Loads of Pink-Footed geese over and around Clay Lane, but the Ross's Gull flew inland from the Pilling Lane ends roost early on.

Dodging raindrops......unsuccessfully

It rained all day, fortunately not as heavily as forecast.  A light SE breeze.

Heysham Nature Reserve - Jean

Nothing much to report, although 9 Blackbirds and 5 Moorhen feeding in the area just west of the office was quite a sight. I counted 27 Blackbirds on a circuit of the reserve but probably more than that. 2 Cetti’s Warblers were singing, one by the main track into the car park and one in the tank farm.

Middleton Nature Reserve - Malcolm

A quick look at the two main ponds

Main Pond

Mute Swan 2

Mallard 31

Gadwall 3

Coot 4 

Moorhen 2

"no swimming" pond

Mute Swan 1

Tufted Duck 4

Gadwall 2

Little Grebe 1

Moorhen 1

These shots and clip were actually taken yesterday. I saved them for today anticipating a complete washout. It was raining then too.

Gadwall pair

Little Grebe

Tufted Ducks

It was time for a preen

Heysham skear - Malcolm 13:45 - 14:15

Only a 30 minute walk, mainly as today's low water was only 3.7m so very little skear was exposed. High water was only 7.1m, so a tidal range today of just 3.4m! The other reason for the short duration was that the initial light rain became heavier.

Little Egret 4

Little Egret and Lesser Black-Backed gull

Eider 2

Red-breasted Merganser 4 (2 + 2)

Red-breasted Merganser, its mate has just dived under 

Oystercatcher c1500

Knot c2000 spread around the skear edges

A small flock of Knot with the unmistakable twin turrets of the new StenaLine 
ship emerging from the gloom on the horizon 

They were feeding busily.

Knot. No colour marked birds seen today, but I only checked for a few minutes.
 In this terrain, you can see lots of birds, but typically not so many legs.

Redshank c60

Curlew 13

Turnstone - just 2 seen there were almost certainly more

Janet's male Sparrowhawk is becoming a regular. This is from yesterday when
it paid at least two visits. I bet the other regular visitors are delighted!

Just out of the recording area. I had a walk along Clay Lane to check the adjacent fields - Malcolm

Just one small feeding flock of 78 Pink-Footed geese were in the field opposite to the entrance to Heysham Moss Nature Reserve. There were no other geese to be seen. Four Egrets just beyond the cattle were just Little Egrets.

Some of the Pink-Footed geese

This Pheasant was feeding with them