Spring is in the air!

Mild with a light SSW wind. Sunny spells.

This from Kevin Eaves: some signs of spring today with a Gorse Weevil on the dog walking path and a Ruby Tiger caterpillar on the sea wall. 

Gorse Weevil 

Ruby Tiger caterpillar 

Middleton Nature Reserve - Janet

Female Stonechat along the western edge near Ocean Edge

Male Bullfinch 

Two male Tufted Duck. Is the Coot behind on a nest?

Heysham skear - Malcolm 10:30 - 12:45

Pale-bellied Brent goose 20+

The Brent geese seem to be able to find sufficient food pretty much everywhere now.

More Redshank again today at least 250. The reason the walk took longer than normal was that there were 2500 Knot. There were several flagged birds, but they took a while to read in the rough terrain.

These all seem to be in plain sight, but not many are showing their legs, and this
Is one of the flatter sections. The bird in the middle is from a Dutch scheme

Curlew 

Plenty of Knot, but few flags

A dry and largely overcast day with a SW wind

Heysham skear - Malcolm 10:15 - 11:30

Pale-bellied Brent goose 26 minimum

This is looking back towards the play area, the Brent are in a line at the water's edge

Shelduck 1 south

Eider 4

Red-breasted Merganser 4

Great Crested Grebe 1

Not as many Redshank around today only c100

Knot c600, there were small feeding groups 30 - 250 scattered all over the skear. It was difficult checking for flags in the rough terrain, so it took quite a while to realise that there were very few. I eventually managed to see and read three, one each of the UK. Dutch and Icelandic schemes.

Other waders similar to recent

Heliport - Howard

c1200 knot on outer wall at cafe end, they started to feed on shore in half moon, l got very close...no flags seen.

Knot on the shore at Half Moon Bay

Bar-Tailed Godwit and Redshank 

South shore - Malcolm  13:15 - 14:00

Pale-bellied Brent goose 33 flew to Red Nab

Brent geese passing No.2 outfall

Wigeon 100+

Just a single Rock Pipit seen today on the saltmarsh 

Reed Bunting 1 on the saltmarsh 

Peregrines still scattering the waders

 Very heavy overnight rain but a dry day with plenty of sunny spells. A fresher SW wind.

This from yesterday on the south shore - Clay Garland

A Rock Pipit was doing a parachuting display flight on the sea wall. (This is additional to the nine reported yesterday)

A leucistic Great Tit (possibly the one mentioned in 22nd Nov blog post) in the nature reserve. 

Heysham skear - Malcolm 09:30 - 11:00

Pale-bellied Brent goose 47 feeding along the waterline to the south of the skear.

These are just a few of them amongst Oystercatcher, Knot and the odd Dunlin

Pale-bellied Brent, Knot and a Dunlin

No Eider, Mergansers or grebes seen, but they tend to favour the north side on the flood tide.

Wigeon 1 male

Oystercatcher 1000, many more further south

Curlew 50

Some of the Curlew. You can see how the inshore wind is now colouring
the shallows as it disturbs the mud. This provides better cover for shrimps
and small fish to feed close to the shore.

Redshank at least 400. They were everywhere, just resting, presumably having been shrimping on the ebbing tide. These are just a few of them.

Knot 650. There were 300 along the waterline, not one of them was ringed or flagged. A Peregrine lifted everything including another 350 Knot had been on what remained of the skear, they all left to the south.

The chaos caused by the Peregrine lifted everything 

Knot and Dunlin heading south

Dunlin 25

Turnstone 60

Turnstone 

Imperial Rd - Malcolm

Very little seen in a quick check

Teal 5

Mallard pair

Mallard

Middleton Nature Reserve - Janet 

The Mute Swan pair were mating, when the male wasn't chasing the three remaining cygnets off the pond and onto the fringes.

Shoveler 2 pairs

Shoveler

Still some Tufted Duck

Cormorant 

Additional Rock Pipits

The rain managed to hold off until after lunch, then pretty wet! A light SSW wind.

Heysham skear - Malcolm 09:00 - 10:30

It was nice to get out without it raining, but there was little to see. A Patrolling Peregrine Falcon had likely moved on some of the waders, particularly Knot as only two small groups totalling 30 birds were seen.

Peregrine Falcon 

Pale-bellied Brent goose - at least 25 they were spread along the waterline to the south of the skear. Probably looking for broken Sea Lettuce left along the shore by the SSW wind.

Pale-bellied Brent geese along the waterline 

Eider 28

Red-breasted Merganser 12

Great Crested Grebe 4

A flock of 40 Turnstone were additional to the typical c40 feeding.

Other waders similar to recent

Heliport - Malcolm 12:15

Plenty of Oystercatcher and a few hundred Knot, also a single Bar-Tailed Godwit

There were two Little Egret with the Oystercatchers

South shore - Malcolm 12:30 - 13:30

Nothing on the outfalls and no Shag seen.

Grey Seal near No.2 outfall

Some of the 60 Curlew heading south

Wigeon 170 at the saltmarsh, they still seem to be able to find seeds on these high tides. You can hear the males whistling in this clip.

No Reed Bunting today

Rock Pipit, an impressive 9. There was one on Red Nab, one on the foreshore, four feeding together on the west side of the saltmarsh and three feeding together on the east side. Two together was the largest group over the winter period.

These are the west side four, a Wren also makes a guest appearance 

These are the three on the east side 

The wind is finally shifting. Shame about the rest of the weather!

Rain all morning, with showers in the afternoon, but ending up in sunshine. The wind is finally shifting, from the south all morning but SW this afternoon 

These shots from Kevin Singleton around the Heliport yesterday

Curlew looking mysterious 

There were Knot around.

I didn't have much time today and when I did it was raining! (Malcolm)

Nature Park to the saltmarsh via Red Nab 11:15 - 12:00

Nature Park:

Bullfinch pair

Blackbird 10 males feeding on the grass by the newt pond - not many walkers disturbing them in the rain.

Red Nab:

Pale-bellied Brent goose 28

Shelduck 9

Wigeon only c50

Saltmarsh:

There were no Wigeon here when I arrived, but they kept coming in from somewhere eventually 175. By this time the rain had eased so I managed some shots.

Shelduck 

Wigeon

Common Snipe 9

No Jack Snipe seen

Song Thrush 1

Rock pipit 2 - 1 each side of the marsh.

Rock Pipit

Reed Bunting at least 8

Male Reed Bunting 

Female Reed Bunting 

Middleton Nature Reserve main pond

A passing check yesterday saw a Mute Swan pair plus 6 immature birds

Today there were just the pair plus 3 immature birds, plus an ominous spread of white feathers on the peninsula .

Yesterday there were at least two pairs of Shoveler, today none could be seen.

Tufted duck 7

Mallard 25

Little Grebe 1

Coot 6

Moorhen 1

Moorhen 

Cross Bay Brent

 A dry overcast day. A very light east wind in the morning, calm this afternoon.

South shore - Malcolm 09:15 - 10:30

I went to check the waterline out from the saltmarsh on the rising tide, as much out of curiosity than expectation. But as I set out there was a flock of c3000 waders drifting like smoke over the distant waterline. I hoped they would settle but they all drifted south. However as I approached the waterline c1000 waders returned and settled, albeit briefly. By this time I was close enough to identify them as mainly Knot, with Grey Plover and Dunlin.

Knot and Dunlin, still quite distant 

 Grey Plover

But they didn't stay long and headed back to the south.

They weren't under attack, well not by a predator. These spring tides come in so quickly, particularly over this relatively flat shore, the waders haven't time to feed and stay ahead of the tide. The rate at which a tide moves isn't constant, at low water there is a short period when it doesn't move at all, slack water. The speed increases as it comes in until it approaches high water when it slows down again producing another slack water at high tide. It was probably coming in slowly enough to begin with for the waders to feed, but by this time it was at its peak speed. 

With the very light offshore wind, it is easy to see the effect of the tidal movement which is usually masked by waves rolling in. When this clip begins I am 5m from the waterline, I am also 5m from the waterline when it finishes, but now on the wet side. No depth of course, just distance.

Cormorants heading for the wooden jetty roost

These geese flew over Middleton Nature Reserve - Janet

Probably Pink-Footed geese

Heysham skear - Malcolm 15:00 - 16:30

By this time it was totally calm and the sea flat. This is looking back to the outer play area rocks, it shows the conditions and also the lack of Brent Geese.

This isn't a black and white shot, but full "colour". It was a trifle dull!

I had set off at the same time in the tide as the previous two days, so I was expecting the Brent geese to fly to the fishing platform rocks at any moment. I could hear them coming, but looking south could only see Oystercatcher arriving. Their calls continued, noise travels exceedingly well over a flat sea, I eventually realised that they were still distant but arriving from the west. They must have flown directly from Walney. The gutweed at the fishing platform rocks must be worth the effort of flying over for quite late in the day.

You can hear the Brent geese calling and also the male Eider's display calls.

Pale-Bellied Brent geese 33 ended up at the fishing platform rocks.

Eider 93 around the skear, more further out. I took advantage of the calm conditions to take this clip of the males displaying. For once you can hear their calls on the clip. The yellow pipe is one of the markers that identify the track the tractors use when launching the dinghies.

No Mergansers seen

Great Crested Grebe 3

This one moving away from winter plumage 

These two well on the way to full summer plumage

The above pair were bonding.

Little Egret 2

Interestingly, there were no Black-Headed gulls feeding, clearly the shrimps were absent. Even though it was flat calm the speed of the water would still have muddied the water along the main drainage channels, so the shrimps must be away from the area.

Oystercatcher 1200

Curlew 60  - a group of 30+ flew over to one of the freshwater runoffs to freshen up. There are feeding Knot in front of them, demonstrating just what a tricky terrain this is to read flagged birds.

Redshank 300

Knot - three smallish groups totalling 300 came from the south and fed a while on the skear, before continuing north. I did manage to spot one yellow flag, but it was one seen here recently. Another 3 groups totalling 250 came from the south and continued north without stopping. As I was getting back to the promenade another 1000 arrived from the south and settled on the western edge of the rapidly increasing skear. The light was already going, it wasn't worth heading back. Well, that's what my legs said!

Turnstone 40

Dunlin 45