Sunday 27 October 2019

Reasonable selection minus the Purp

No early morning start in the fresh north-westerly this am.  Coverage was centred around looking for the Purple Sand to no avail.....but it could have slipped the net if feeding below the jetty or along the north wall.  The Leighton CafĂ© rarities committee were divided on the identity of a diver photographed off the Stone Jetty yesterday which proved to be a rather 'heavy billed' juvenile Red-throat.  Probably the same bird close inshore off Heysham this am (pics MD):


 
Juv GBBG - a plumage rarely published outside books on seagulls
 
Little gull - adult No.2 outflow
Jack snipe  - 1 saltmarsh
Stonechat - 1 female type, briefly at saltmarsh, male by Red Nab
Meadow pipit - 3 near lighthouse, 6 saltmarsh
Rock pipit - 1 saltmarsh, one harbour
Linnet c30
Red Throated Diver. 1 juv close inshore last seen by Heysham 2 outfall feeding quite happily
Kittiwake - 4 ads behind Ben
Guillemot - one out medium range
Med Gull - 1-2 Ads behind Ben

A decent number of Knot on the Heliport for over a month now - good murmuration views today as the north westerly high tide restricted the area in which to roost.

Goosewatch
As I was coming off skeer yesterday evening, just before it got dark, 5 geese flew low to west. They could easily have come from children's play area. Similarly today as I was walking along foreshore when 4 or 5 geese were flying from saltmarsh towards Potts. In both case they were too distant to identify, but previous habits suggest Brent (MD).