Friday 19 March 2021

The wind turns and more stuff starting to move

The west winds moved to the north, but remained light. Overcast with sunny intervals, but remained dry all day.

Jean managed a session from Heysham Head this morning:

07:40-0920 (all north unless stated)

Meadow Pipit 55

Skylark 2

Siskin 2

Goldfinch 12

Chaffinch 11

Linnet 18

Pied Wagtail 6

Raven 2

Black-headed Gull - a gang of 20 floated then flew into the Bay


Pink-footed goose 70 high to north 10:20.


Low tide channel and Heysham skeer 

Pale-bellied Brent 4

Red-breasted Merganser 18

Great-crested Grebe 11

Eider 55 around the skeer but the ones nearer Morecambe weren’t counted.


Heysham Nature Reserve 
A very enjoyable walk around the reserve in the afternoon (MD)
It started with this, slightly bedraggled looking, male Kestrel on the office roof.
Nothing particularly rare today, the best being:
Chiffchaff  2 singing
But a good variety of species:
Tits - Great, Blue and Long-tailed (I'm sure there would have been Coal around too)
Corvids - Jay, Carrion crow, Magpie
Finches - Green, Gold, Bull, Chaffinch 
Robin, Dunnock, Wren
Wood pigeon
Pheasant 
Little Egret
Teal
Moorhen 
Great Spotted Woodpecker - this female was calling

Insects:
There were several queen bees flying, not looking for flowers, but nest sites. The ones I managed clear views of, appeared to be Buff-tailed bumblebees.

This doe Roe Deer was on the northern boundary
Apart from lack of antlers, which the males will be growing again now, you can tell
that this is a female by the tuft of hair (it's not a true tail) growing from the white rump.
This is how I saw her before she saw me, her head was down feeding. The roaring in the background is the traffic on the road to the ferries.

In this clip she sees me, has a good look, and decides I'm not worth bothering about, which pleased me greatly. You can hear bees buzzing during the Mexican standoff.
 If you avoid sudden clothing and sudden movements you can be easily ignored. A trait that I quite like! She didn't look pregnant, so may have a fawn(s) under cover nearby, so I left her in peace and returned the way I came.