Plenty of insects in the sunshine and first Blackcap

A warm (16°C at 14:00) sunny day with a fresh south then SW to west wind.

North shore - David Kaye

Whooper Swan 10 north

Pale-bellied Brent Goose 47 out from the play area

South shore - Malcolm 09:30 - 10:15

Just a circuit saltmarsh - Red Nab - Nature Park

Wigeon 58 out from the saltmarsh 

Common Snipe 11 lifted by the tide from the saltmarsh 

Reed Bunting 3

Red-breasted Merganser 1 male flew east out from the foreshore 

Male Red-breasted Merganser

Eider 1 male out from Red Nab

Pale-bellied Brent goose 44. Red Nab was already covered. These arrived from the south and settled on the sea out from Red Nab. Not typical behaviour for the regular birds so possibly in addition to David's earlier.

Brent geese joined by a pair of Wigeon

Chiffchaff 2 singing in the Nature Park

Back at my car, someone had been grooming their dog. Two Carrion Crows gratefully collected the resulting nest lining material.

At this time of year always leave any fur from grooming out for the birds, it isn't just the Crows that will be grateful for it. Similarly, if you rake the moss from your lawn, leave that somewhere for the birds too.

Heliport

Howard checked around high water

2500 Knot joined the Oystercatcher and Redshank on the sea wall.
It isn't practical to check them for flags when they are packed like this

Rock Pipit

Dunnock singing its heart out

I checked later as the tide was leaving the sea wall (Malcolm). 1000 of the Knot moved onto the mud, but I could only find one flagged bird.

This was only its second sighting since being ringed at the Wadden Sea Holland
in 2024. The first sighting was when it was seen on the skear on Saturday 

Today it was the Turnstones turn to take a bath. This is also freshwater runoff, but this has come from the culvert on the sloping sea wall. The chirping is from House Sparrows nesting in the brambles along the Heliport fence.

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Janet checked first

The male Goosander is still on the "no swimming" pond

Chiffchaff on the southern section of the reserve

Brimstone 1 

Comma 1

I checked this afternoon (Malcolm)

Main pond

Mute swan a breeding pair plus 1 immature 

Mallard 1 pair

Gadwall pair plus a male

Tufted Duck 3 males

Shoveler 3 males and a female seen

Little Grebe 2 including 1 trilling

Summer plumage Little Grebe

Coot 4

Moorhen 1

Cetti's warbler 1 singing

Chiffchaff 1 singing

"no swimming" pond

Mute swan pair

The Goosander was still there 

Mallard pair

Tufted Duck 22

Some of the Tufted Duck

Coot 2

Moorhen 1

Little Grebe 2 at least

Not sure what is going on here. A Lesser Black-Backed pair and a Herring gull were all calling, but it looked friendly enough. But looks can be deceiving.

Chiffchaff 1 singing

Peacock butterfly 1

Central marshes

Teal 5

Mallard pair

Moorhen 4

Grey Heron 1

Reed Bunting 2

Cetti's warbler 4 singing

Chiffchaff 1 singing 

Blackcap 1 singing - first this year

Small Tortoiseshell 2 together - so that's 4 butterfly species today

Imperial Rd - Malcolm

Buzzard 1 flew to the central copse

An embryonic nest in the copse, currently way too small for a Buzzard,
but perhaps it will grow. One to keep an eye on

Water Rail 1 squealing

Seven spot Ladybird 1

Seven spot Ladybird on a broken Reedmace head

First Sand Martins

Opposite to yesterday, with it being dry in the morning, then rain for most of the afternoon. A SW wind.

Pete did a seawatch, although there wasn't too much to watch! 

Barrel scraping 1.5hrs Heysham from 0710: 

9 plus 2 Kittiwake

two Sand Martin  - first this year

One adult Gannet 

One red throated diver - all inbound.   

Nothing in final half hour. 

Blackbird by ‘gate 38’ prob migrant 

Middleton Nature Reserve - Janet

The female Mute Swan was busy arranging nest material 

Four male and a female Shoveler

Shoveler with a Teal

Immature Cormorant 

Just Tufted Ducks and Coot seen on the "no swimming" pond

Heliport - Malcolm 11:30

I checked as the tide was leaving the heliport wall.

750 Knot moved from the wall on to the mud. There was just one flagged bird.

There is a significant freshwater runoff in the corner, but it runs to the sea through the mud here. It leaves small pools of fresh water where the rocks create a depression. Just right to freshen up in.

It's mainly Brent again!

It rained for most of the morning, but just the odd shower in the afternoon. The early south wind shifting to SW then west.

Heysham skear - Malcolm 15:15 - 16:30

Pale-bellied Brent goose 73 (Pete also checked from Knowlys Rd and also counted 73, they are not easy to count accurately out here, let alone from there!).

Initially they were spread all around the skear in small family groups

Brent geese

Later most had moved to the middle of the skear to feed. The onshore wind was quite fresh at this point, hence the somewhat shaky clip.

Later they flew to the south side of the skear

Eider just 2 seen

There were c1500 Knot in three flocks, I managed to check one feeding group of 500 but didn't see any flagged.

Knot

Redshank 120

Turnstone 80

Redshank and Turnstone 

Oystercatcher and Curlew not counted

Middleton Nature Reserve - Malcolm

Just a quick check of the main ponds on my way home this evening.

Main pond

Mute Swan 1 adult male and 1 immature banished to the reed beds. The adult female wasn't looked for, but she wouldn't have been far away.

Mallard 1 pair

Tufted Duck 7

Shoveler 5 (3 males)

Gadwall pair

Little Grebe 1

Gadwall 

All five Shoveler in this clip

"no swimming" pond

Mute Swan 2 adults

Goosander 1 male

Teal 1 male

Tufted Duck 21 (6 female)

Goosander and Teal

Some of the Tufted Duck with the Goosander at the back

Cetti's warbler 2 singing

Good Brent count

A dry sunny day with a light west wind.

Middleton Nature Reserve - Janet

Green Woodpecker calling near the goof course

This Buzzard wasn't welcomed by the gulls!

Common Buzzard and Lesser Black-Backed gulls

Heysham skear - Malcolm 11:00 - 12:30 and 15:00 - 16:30

Pale-bellied Brent goose 76 - that is the number that flew to the skear from the north side this morning, just after a Peregrine attack had lifted all the waders.

There were high numbers on and around the skear on both visits. One of the advantages of persuading the waders that you are not a threat, is that the Brent also ignore you. These came to within 5 metres of me.

Adult Pale-bellied Brent goose

First winter Pale-bellied Brent goose

Eider 13 this morning 

Shag 1 adult on conger rock this afternoon 

There were 3500 Knot but very flighty, I saw three Peregrine attacks, at least 2 successful 

Peregrine Falcon with a Knot

This is the effect of another attack this afternoon, once again the Brent lifted

The Knot moved onto the mud to the south of the skear after a Peregrine attack this morning. They are much easier to check for flags here, but only two of the many hundreds checked were flagged. They were finding small bivalves (Baltic Tellins) and shore crabs

This Knot has a small shore crab

The Knot on the left has a Baltic Tellin (macoma)
One of the two flags seen, this one ringed at Merseyside in 2024
There were further flagged birds seen later including three new ones for this winter

One of several Dunlin also probing the mud.

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