Thursday 25 November 2010

Wot a lot of knot

Heysham Obs
Nothing individually startling today, but the carpet of Knot below the north harbour wall on the incoming tide was the best I have seen there.  Peaked at about 33,000, then 5,000 flew towards the Sunny Slopes groyne.  I went through as many as I could with the scope (or as many rapidly moving things as my eyes could cope with) and I couldnt find a single colour-ringed or flagged bird - really unlucky selection of birds, I suspect. Good u-tube material?

Also significant were up to 400 Bar-tailed Godwit on the outer tideline south of the harbourmouth, along with 210 Grey Plover and 1,700 Dunlin

Little Egret - one flew north past the harbour
Pink-footed Goose - 40 SE
Twite - just 8 plus a Linnet on the seed in the early morning

No Waxwings on a suburban SD46A circuit - best berries are by Trumacar school, but it really doesnt look like we have had any flocks here during the last two days