Aukfest and impressive Sanderling numbers

A dry day with patchy sunshine. A sea mist rolled in with the tide and the light east breeze.

Seawatch report Pete 0515-0645.  Busy!  

Aukfests are not a regular feature away from the open coast

Razorbill/Guillemot - min of 390 out, all distant with other gangs even further away prob these
Guillemot - 40 in close, 8 out
Razorbill - 2 out
Gannet - 13 in
Kittiwake - 22,1,1 in
Sandwich Tern - 8 out
Common Scoter - min of 120 out, 8 in mostly early on 
Sanderling - 63 out

Heysham skear - Malcolm 09:45 -11:15

Pete timed his early morning seawatch well, by 08:30 the mist had rolled in. By the time I went out is was quite thick.

What little of Heysham Head showing, with no sign of the harbour and
Power Stations behind

Eider 5

Gulls c200

Oystercatcher 1500

Knot 8

Sanderling at least 500

This is the largest of three groups, plus many others feeding in small groups

Wherever you looked near the water's edge there were Sanderling, and the longer you looked, the more arrived. You can just make out their soft calls in this clip.

Different stages of moult to breeding plumage

This one only has one leg, but was still finding plenty to eat.

We are moving back to neap tides but it still drains quite quickly at this stage of the tide. This Whitebait left it too late and is trying to find the best spot to hide and wait out the tide. It is c5cm long and too big for the Sanderlings, but would make a welcome change to seed mussels for one of the gulls. It is in the middle of the frame at the start of the clip, but not obvious until it moves.

It made a good choice, that's the deepest area of the pool and should remain deep enough to cover it. Whether it will remain undetected for four hours will now determine its fate.

Middleton Nature Reserve - Janet

Common Whitethroat 

Long-Tailed Tit

Pheasant

Small Heath

Common Blue

Eight wader species, not bad for mid May

A warm, dry sunny day with a light variable breeze. It topped 20°C just before lunch.

Middleton Nature Reserve - Janet

Adult Coot with chick

Since the aggressive male Swan has gone all the chicks are doing well.

There are five in this younger brood.

Broad-bodied Chaser

Four-Spotted Chaser

Common Bluetail Damselflies 

Green Veined White

Small Heath one of four - first records this year. 

Burnet Companion - also first record this year

Heysham Skear - Malcolm 13:30 - 14:00

The incoming tide was close to covering the skear. This concentrates whatever birds have hung on, but you don't get long to check them. 

A passing Osprey at 13:35 lifted all the Oystercatchers and Gulls

But there were other waders:

Curlew 4

Whimbrel 2

A constantly calling Whimbrel 

Redshank 3 

Redshank

Knot 1

Dunlin 4

Ringed Plover 8 (7 + 1 came in/off, possibly just returning after the Osprey lifted everything)

Sanderling 68 - initially on the north side then left to the south

Some of the Sanderling on what little was left on the northern skear edge

Then leaving to the south

Little Egret 3 

Eider 3 (1 female)

Great Crested Grebe 3

Great Crested Grebe

Not bad for a 30 minutes stroll

My garden gate had attracted another moth - Light Brown Apple Moth

Logic would have saved some legwork!

Just light showers after early morning rain. Overcast all day but the temperature rose significantly during the afternoon peaking at 16.5° C. A light south wind switched to SW mid morning.

Heysham skear - Malcolm 10:30 - 12:00

As I was walking out the tide was soon going to cover the outermost skear. Any waders there would be likely to move to the middle skear. Sanderlings favour the margins so would either head for the southern or northern edge of the skear. I reasoned that logically they should head for the southern edge as with the south wind that side would be more productive for feeding. But I decided to opt for the north side, as historically the Sanderlings have favoured the north side. Wrong decision!

As the outer skear was covered 2 Sanderling flew to the north side and disappeared behind a honeycomb worm reef. Then a flock of 50+ "small waders" flew along the southern side. So I had to cross over to try and locate them. It's only 400m across here, but rough terrain.

Looking from the northern to the southern edge of the skear

When I got there I found 10 Sanderling feeding along the waterline

You can see some of the Sanderling along the waterline with Oystercatcher 
Plus 3 Little Egret. That's the promenade just north of the play area

So, enough Sanderling to suggest that the flock seen were Sanderling, but not enough to account for the whole flock. So I went back to the north side and managed to locate another 50+. Making 60+ Sanderling in total. If I had started on the south side, as logic dictated, I would have seen the flock arrive and then presumably split. I would still have crossed to check the north side, but at least I would have only had to cross over once! There must be a moral in there somewhere.....

Very difficult spotting them when they are still. At least 12 Sanderling in this shot.

Fortunately they are rarely still

Sanderling 

Oystercatcher not counted 

Curlew 1

Bar-Tailed Godwit 1

Eider 5 (2 female)

Little Egret 6

Gulls, mainly Herring Gulls c150

South shore - Malcolm 14:15 - 16:00

Whimbrel 1 calling around the saltmarsh 

Common Sandpiper 1 along the foreshore, but very flighty.

Common Sandpiper 

Curlew 1 on Red Nab.

Little Egret 2 on the saltmarsh and 3 on Red Nab

Curlew,  Little Egret and a Lesser Black-Backed gull

Wheatear 2 along the foreshore 

Male Wheatear, the other only seen heading off, but looked to be female.

Rock Pipit 4 minimum. One each, foreshore, Red Nab, Lighthouse and waterfall.

I filmed the lighthouse Rock Pipit taking food to its nest again. This time from the opposite side and a wider angle to watch where the hole is. But I failed again, the nest hole must be directly below where I was standing.

It returned from the nest, stood next to me, and gave me a right ticking off!

Linnet 3 between the lighthouse and waterfall 

There was nothing feeding on the outfalls.

The Carrion Crow was not sitting on the nest and no adult visited it in the 15 minutes that it was in view. Abandoned?

Plenty of young rabbits between the lighthouse and waterfall 

When I (Malcolm) went to replenish my feeders last night, this Sparrowhawk had a male Blackbird pinned down. My distraction allowed the Blackbird to free itself and after a chase around several gardens eventually escape. I know feeding the small birds ultimately leads to feeding the predators. But it is usually the weak and sick who perish. My Blackbird was probably just off guard, as he has a young family in the nest to support.

Presumably, this male Sparrowhawk also has a young family to feed.

Sanderlings still on the move

Another wet night, but just the odd shower during the day. A fresh SW wind

Heysham skear - Malcolm 09:15 - 11:15

Eider 5 males including 1 immature 

Drake Eiders, the one on the right is a 2nd calendar year bird

Great Crested Grebe 5 (2 pairs and an individual)

Little Egret 7

Pink-Footed Goose 1 "shot at" looking bird resting on the mud and occasionally waddling off in front of the tide.

Pink-Footed goose

Gulls 150 mainly Herring gulls. 

I'd set off at low water to check the progress of the seed mussels further out on the skear. Once past conger rock there was a thin blanket of them covering most of the surface.

This is the size of the seed mussels, that's a £1 coin

This shows the typical coverage

The above mussels are on a relatively muddy area and are tightly packed together. They are still tiny and you would imagine hardly worth the effort of eating. But the gulls were feeding on them nevertheless. They were favouring the rougher ground where the seed mussels wouldn't be so embedded.

Oystercatcher 1000+

Curlew 1

Whimbrel 2 flew north when moved on from the skear

Dunlin 6

Sanderling 48

These flew west along the northern side of the skear

Smaller groups were still feeding along the north side.

The bottom bird here has a small bivalve 

By this time the tide was racing in, I knew it wouldn't be long before these had to move on.

I managed another look on the ebbing tide this evening 17:30 - 19:00

Additional to this morning:

Eider pair 

Female Eider, she's not floating like a balloon, but stood on a rock

Male Eider

Curlew 2

Knot 1

Sanderling just 10. None to start with then a single bird flying around, later joined by 4 then 5 more.

Sanderling 

Middleton Nature Reserve - Janet

Very busy over the main pond. The young Coots were oblivious of the action going on all around them.

Swallow

House Martin

Swift