The large Linnet flock hasn't gone unnoticed

A mainly overcast day with a heavy lunchtime shower. A SW wind.

These shots from the heliport wall yesterday - Kevin Singleton 

Not sure what this Oystercatcher is regurgitating 

Curlew

Middleton Nature Reserve 

This from Peter and Rosemary's visit yesterday 

It was very quiet on the insect front at both the Southern End and Main Pond but given the time of year that was not so surprising.

Southern End:

Migrant Hawker 2

Common Darters in Tandem 1 pair only

Male Common Darter 10

Female Common Darter 2

Speckled Wood 2

Greylag Geese 14 flying westerly. One one of them had quite prominent white wing tips

Heard:

Robin

Chiffchaff

Main Pond:

Migrant Hawker 2

Male Common Darter 6

Mute Swans 2

Moorhen 1

Mallard 2

Grey Heron 1

Heard:

Robin 2 - one singing from the trees at the northern edge of the main car park and another singing from the trees at the southern edge of the main car park.  It would be interesting to know which one won the territory!

Cettis Warbler

Long Tailed Tits

Greylag geese

The one with white wingtips is either partially leucistic
or has a domestic goose ancestry 

Common Darter on Peter's head

Male Common Darter making a more conventional landing

Some of the detail

Female Common Darter

A pretty flower with a less than pretty name - Common Toadflax 

Janet checked this morning and managed to spot one of the colour ringed Grey Wagtails ringed at Heysham earlier this autumn.

Buzzard passing over

South shore 

Kingfisher 1 flew out from the freshwater runoff culvert on Red Nab - Kevin Eaves

Malcolm 13:15 - 16:00

It was still raining when I reached the saltmarsh, but you could see it was about to ease. I hadn't seen any Linnet, then a male Merlin flew low and fast over the marsh and lifted c200 Linnet. All my optics were safely stashed away so I couldn't see if it got one. But if it didn't that time, it probably would later.

Another 15 Linnet were drying off along the foreshore. By this time the rain had stopped and the sun was out.

Linnet

Shelduck 88 close to shore but more further out

Plenty of gulls on Red Nab

Mediterranean gull 6

This adult Mediterranean Gull was shaking the rain off its pure white wings

This 2nd calendar year Mediterranean Gull still has some black at the wingtips 

I walked out to the waterline, the tides are dropping now and do not come in too quickly for the waders to feed along the waterline. But apart from the Oystercatcher just a couple of small groups of Knot stopped off briefly before continuing south. Then at 14:15 a flock of c4000 waders, mainly Knot, arrived from the south.

They circled a while then settled beyond the recording area. I walked over to check them out then something spoked them and they all lifted again. Fortunately, this time many of them settling within the recording area.

Bar-Tailed Godwit 30

Grey Plover 45

Knot c2000

Dunlin 300

I was stood in the sea to keep what little light there was behind me, but by this
time visibility was poor. Also waders are much more trusting of someone
 approaching in the water than they are if you approach them on the mud.

Bar-Tailed Godwit, Grey Plover and Knot

Knot, Grey Plover and Dunlin 
I did spot three flagged Knot, but only managed to read two, both regulars
from the last winter period. One an Icelandic scheme the other an English scheme

1st calendar year Common Gull

The same Common gull

Shelduck 

Three of seven Wigeon at the saltmarsh 

Lapwing 3 and Redshank 30 also at the saltmarsh 

Still RVD at Middleton and Glossy Ibis not far away

A dry and often sunny day. A west breeze

Middleton Nature Reserve 

This from Rosemary and Peter's visit yesterday 

Seen at the Southern Section:

Migrant or Southern Hawker 2 (they were too far away to get a definite ID)

Common Darters Ovipositing 3 pair

Lone Male Common Darter 8

Lone Female Common Darter 2

Speckled Wood 2

Heard at the Southern Section

Long Tailed Tits

Seen at the Main Pond

Red Veined Darter 1

Migrant or Southern Hawker 2 (again, they were too far away for a definite ID)

Common Darters Ovipositing 2 pair

Male Common Darter 6

Speckled Wood 1

Mute Swans 2

Mallard 4

Grey Heron 1

Heard at the Main Pond

Cettis Warbler

Robin

Immature Red-Veined Darter
(What a great, almost surreal, shot!)

Common Darters

Female Common Darter

The main pond Mute Swans

Janet checked today but was exercising a dog, so restricted to where she could go

Two Chiffchaff heard

Swallow 1 south

Pink-Footed geese 82

Pink Footed Geese flying south

Tufted Duck 2 on the main pond, the "no swimming" pond not checked.

Tufted Duck pair

Lots of Common Darters on the south side.
This one allowing a good comparison to the RVD shot above
Migrant Hawker also seen

Common Darter by the main pond

A flock of Long-Tailed Tits passed through 

This young Bullock keeps escaping from his field!!
He is ok and never bothers people or dogs.

Heysham skear - Malcolm 10:45 - 12:00

The tide had already been making for over an hour and was now coming in quickly 

Grey Heron 1

Little Egret 16

Little Egrets

Eider 6

Red-breasted Merganser 6

Red-breasted Mergansers

The bulk of the Oystercatchers had already moved to the waterline.This area is where
the Knot usually move to on the incoming tide, but there was only a handful today

Then c1000 Knot arrived from the north and settled here. But as soon as they did a Peregrine lifted them all again, and they continued south.

The tail end of the Knot flock heading south. You can see the Peregrine top right

There were probably 200 more Knot around the skear in small groups. Then another flock of c500 arrived from the north. So not too far short of 2000 Knot in total. The ones seen were mainly young birds and no flagged birds were seen.

Some of the late arriving Knot with Oystercatchers 

One of the Oystercatchers was colour coded.
This bird was ringed as a chick at Glen Clova Scotland in 2016. It has been
seen at Heysham several times since 2019, but unfortunately nowhere else

Bar-Tailed Godwit 2 

Dunlin 1

Redshank, more than recent at least 180

Other waders similar to recent

Bar-Tailed Godwit and Oystercatcher 

Dunlin

This Carrion Crow took umbrage at me and gave me a good cawing at!

Just out of the recording area  - Heaton Marsh - Malcolm

Pete had advised that there had been three Glossy Ibis seen along the tidal road over the last two days. So I called in while passing around high water this afternoon. I only managed one. These shots were taken about 50m along the road that goes to the Golden Ball, after you turn off the road from the bypass.

Most of the time it's head was down, making it look like a large Lapwing 

Glossy Ibis, although not a very glossy one

It flew off to the east, it will just about be above the Golden Ball in this shot 

Half way along the bypass between the Heaton roundabout and Imperial Rd roundabout, on the south side, there was a field where gulls were feeding.

Not a lot of gulls....

......but three of them were Mediterranean gulls