Skear scoured

A dry day with the odd sunny spell. A very light west(ish) breeze.

South shore -Malcolm 09:15 - 09:45

Just a quick check from saltmarsh to Red Nab

Saltmarsh 

Linnet 120

Reed Bunting 3

Reed Bunting 

Lapwing 5

Curlew 4

Little Egret 2

Pied Wagtail 2

They light produced some interesting effects

Curlew 

Little Egret and Lapwing

Lapwing

Pied Wagtail 

There were just 5 more Pied Wagtails and a couple of Robins along the foreshore.

Red Nab

Pale-bellied Brent goose 11

Shelduck 4

Wigeon 88

Look how flat the sea is!

Brent geese, Wigeon and a Shelduck

Heysham skear - Malcolm 14:45 - 16:30

Pale-bellied Brent geese 14. Possibly this morning's 11 plus 3 that were feeding separately 

Some of the Brent geese amongst the Honeycomb worm clumps in the skear corner

The light was fading quickly and by 15:25 they headed off to the west

Eider 14

Red-breasted Merganser 2

Goldeneye 1 female or immature male

Goldeneye 

A nice size comparison with Eider

Great Crested grebe 4

Oystercatcher c1500

Curlew 30

Redshank c50

Knot 26

Turnstone 40

Dunlin 1

Ringed Plover 3

I managed to get to the edge of the middle skear today, possibly the last time till next spring (to get this far you need something approaching low water on a spring tide, which are typically between 05:00 - 0700 and 17:00 - 19:00. All in the dark in winter. Indeed the light was already fading and it was almost dark by the time I returned to the promenade). A week or so ago I said that the recent storms seemed to have little effect on the skear, but that was the inner skear. It was a different story out here.

 

All the substrate has been scoured away. Leaving just the boulders and 
empty Mussel shells on the skear bottom. All the live and particularly the
small Mussels will have gone with the underlaying mud. Probably
explaining the recent lack of Knot.

A good tide for Brent geese

Large dark clouds rolled through all day, but somehow it managed to stay dry. Sunny spells in between. A west wind.

Heysham skear - Malcolm 13:15 - 14:15

I went out later in the tide than recently. Low water today was 15:00, and at 2.4m it would expose the SE skear corner where there is lots of sea lettuce. As I approached the corner, there were already 2 Pale-bellied Brent geese feeding, but they were soon joined by 17 others. So 19 Pale-bellied Brent Geese, possibly joined by more later as I didn't have time to stay till low water.

This is one of the early arrivals 

These are the others coming in, they actually land in the bay just west of the skear corner.

Pale-bellied Brent geese

They immediately swam towards the skear corner and began feeding. These tides are ideal for them. The sea lettuce is still underwater but easily in reach. You can see them eating the lettuce in this clip.

This is typical of the area they were feeding at. This is actually one of the
pools in the skear middle, so there are other easy pickings for them.

Quite a striking shot of some of the Brent. Looking into the light,
but dominated by dark clouds.

There were some quite dramatic skies

Eider 4

Red-breasted Merganser 2

Great Crested Grebe 5

Little Egret 3

Oystercatcher c1500

Curlew c40

Grey Plover 1

Redshank c60

Knot c300 (no colour marked birds seen)

Turnstone 45

Dunlin 55

Ringed Plover 1

Ringed Plover having a paddle

Oystercatcher having a swim

Dunlin

South sea wall - Kevin

Nice to see this Buff-tailed Bumblebee on the sea wall today.
We're still clinging on to autumn. 

BRS passes through

A brighter day today with just a few light showers. A cold NE light wind.

Ocean Edge Foreshore - Janet 

Black Redstart 1 female type quickly moved through at 12:20

Nice record shots. Janet was exercising a dog and only had her small lens.

Heysham skear - Malcolm 10:00 - 11:30

No Brent geese seen today, but the tide was still ebbing when I left.

Eider 106

They really are fine looking birds. Even the females aren't the plain
brown they look to be at distance 

Red-breasted Merganser 3

Red-breasted Merganser pair

Wigeon 11 - 2 and 9 flew north

Wigeon

Great Crested grebe 3

Incoming Cormorant and a Great Crested Grebe

Little Egret 5

Redshank c250, Knot c300, other waders similar to recent.

Curlew, Redshank and Oystercatcher 

Oystercatcher, Redshank and Knot

Turnstone 

First Brent back

A mainly overcast day interspersed with short sunny spells and light showers. A light NE wind shifting to east in the afternoon.

Middleton Nature Reserve 

This from Peter and Rosemary's visit yesterday.

Yesterday turned out to be another breeding frenzy day for the Common Darters inhabiting the main pond area at Middleton even putting on a bit of formation-flying as part of the show. There were at least three mated pairs and quite a number of solo males.

Once again attracted to Peter's light coloured jacket

Not bad for November!

South shore - Malcolm 08:30 - 09:00

Just a check from saltmarsh to Red Nab

Reed Bunting 4 around the saltmarsh 

The only passerines along the foreshore were 2 Robins, 2 Wrens and a solitary Linnet

Linnet

Little Egret 2

Shelduck 63

Heysham skear - Malcolm 09:15 - 10:30

Pale-bellied Brent goose 6. I had thought that they may turn up on a neap tide. Neap tides only expose some of the feeding areas and presumably those areas on the west side of the bay, where the Brent have been for a while, are becoming depleted. No shortage on this side yet. The tide wasn't far out but they were finding gutweed on the larger rocks.

Female Eider showing what a small goose a Brent Goose is

Eider 125, there was a lot of displaying going on

Common Scoter 2

They were swimming in quite quickly against the ebbing tide.

Red-breasted Merganser 4

Great Crested Grebe 3

Shag 1 

Initially the Shag was on the rock on the right and a Cormorant was
on a larger rock to the left

It was doing a lot of flapping 

Not yet fully mature.

The Cormorant flew over and joined the Shag.....

.......and they had a flap together 

Later they flew off together too. But they soon split to go their separate ways.

Little Egret 4

Oystercatcher c1000

This will almost certainly be the bird seen on the heliport wall the other day.
Today it revealed its other leg showing a white ring KC. It breeds in Iceland
and been seen here several times before 

Curlew 25

Redshank c400

Knot c200 one yellow flagged bird was with them. Another ringed in Iceland. Unfortunately it hasn't been seen since it was here last October 

Turnstone 40

Janet walked through Heysham Moss Nature Reserve and had a couple of flyovers 

Little Egret

Sparrowhawk

Still some insects worth seeing

A dry, largely sunny day. A light, but freshening slightly, north(ish) breeze

Heysham skear - Malcolm 09:15  - 10:15

Pink-Footed goose 102 south

Common Scoter 2 

Female Common Scoters with a sleeping merganser

Eider just 2

Female Eider

Red-breasted Merganser 3

Little Egret 6

Little Egret arriving from the north

Curlew 30

Oystercatcher c1000

Redshank c150

Knot c700

Turnstone 45

Turnstone 

Slightly easier to see Turnstone 

We are back to neap tides now so not much skear exposed. Someone was fishing on
the north side, which caused the Knot to shift to the south side where they are much
more difficult to check for any coded birds. I didn't have much time so called it a day

Middleton Nature Reserve - Janet

Tufted duck drake

Adolescent Goldfinch feeding on a teasel 

Common Darter

South shore 

Janet checked Ocean Edge

Another young Goldfinch. This time eating flower seeds

Little Egret legging it

1 of 20+ Shelduck

Kevin had a walk along the sea wall

This Rusty Dot Pearl was resting on the wall today. Not especially rare but it is a migrant and probably the first ever record for SD 35Z which basically just covers the end of the sea wall and the south of the harbour 

Rusty Dot Pearl