A good day for youngsters

 South breeze, with very low cloud and light rain showers in the morning gave way to brighter spells later in the afternoon.

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Report from Jean:

VIS

Low key due to low cloud

Grey Wagtail 10 (7 trapped and ringed)

alba wagtail 9 - still not many moving

Meadow Pipit 48

Linnet 16

Chaffinch 4

Goldfinch 61 (one and a flock of 60)

Swallow 14

House Martin 2

Skylark 1

Pink-footed Goose 80 north presumably to feeding areas and 143 south plus a flock heard but not seen

Jay 3 - there is an irruption (if that is the right word) of Jays all over the country due to the failure of the acorn crop. Birds are roaming around in search of acorns.

ON SITE

Reed Bunting 1

Cetti's Warbler 1 on the west

Water Rail 1 on the west

Goldcrest 2 heard

Robin 1 "ticking" - presumably a migrant

RINGING

All new birds unless stated.

Grey Wagtail 7 colour ringed

Blackcap 4

Meadow Pipit 2

Wren 1

Goldfinch 1 

Long-tailed Tit 5 retraps, the oldest was one ringed in May 2019

Blue tit 10

Great Tit 1

Chiffchaff 1

Greenfinch 1

A flock of what appeared from a distance to be 10+ Goldfinch turned out to be the tit flock in the ringing totals!

Mammals:

Pete reported:

Stoat 1 adult with 2 half grown youngsters on the ringing road, also

Grey Squirrel 1 (unusual here)

Heysham skear - low water 09:30 (MD)

We are moving back to neap tides so not as much of the skear exposed today.

Pink-Footed goose - what a difference to yesterday! Today only 4 skeins seen, all visible at the same time 08:45. 30 and 57 flying north, presumably local movement, 38 and 15 south. Pete advises that there is now blocking weather at Iceland.

Great Crested Grebe 5

Eider 14

Red-breasted Merganser 13 - two groups of female/immature birds (7 and 6). I really like this clip, these are four of the group of six. It looks for all the world to be a fishing lesson. Watch the three on the left, presumably youngsters, very quickly after diving one is successful and seems to be extremely excited about it........

This is a still from the clip as the merganser first surfaces, you can make out the small
fish it has caught. It would be nice to think that the excitement stems from it being its
first catch. But realistically it has probably had its prize snatched away before, and it 
wasn't going to happen this time! (MD)

Little Egret 20, not in the same pool as yesterday, the tide is lower today so it wouldn't drain the area around the pool so quickly giving the shrimps time to leave before being stranded. Instead the egret focused on the draining water on the south side.

Grey Heron 2

Waders included: Oystercatcher, Redshank, Turnstone, Ringed Plover, Curlew and Knot (just three individual birds)

Shag 1 juvenile - I wasn't sure about this in real time, but a distant bird's loping dive looked more like a shag than a cormorant. I managed this short clip, which later confirmed that it was indeed a juvenile Shag.

Juvenile Shag - just a blown up still from the above clip