Very light S to SW breeze, overcast al day with the occasional light shower.
Middleton Nature Reserve
Just the briefest check of the two main ponds
Mute and Moorhen unchanged
Mallard 2
Gadwall 24
Tufted duck 1 male
Shoveler 1 male
North shore
Pale-bellied Brent goose 39 - these 37 flew from the furthest rocks out from the children's play area to their preferred feeding spot close in to the north of the play area. There were another 2 in the skear corner that joined them later.
Today was the lowest tide in the current neap tide phase. With so much less shore exposed on these tides, many of their other feeding options will not be available (MD).Shag 1 juvenile - I could see it feeding near conger rock while I was still a long way from the water's edge. I just managed this short clip of their classic feeding dive.
By the time I'd reached the water's edge, it must have just caught and swallowed something, wish I'd checked earlier. It must have been a quite large fish, as it spent the next few minutes fidgeting around and looking a bit uncomfortable. When I looked back later there was no sign, so presumably it had flown back to the harbour area.
Great Crested grebe just 1 seen, but suspect there were more further out
Eider c150
That's about it really, a walk back along the shore side of the sea wall failed to locate yesterday's Black Redstart, perhaps it's moved into our area, I'll have a look tomorrow.
This is a Barrel Jellyfish, not unusual here, but quite late in the year for them.
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| Barrel Jellyfish...... |
When I have seen late ones before they have been quite large, they for less than a year in their adult form. But this one was quite small. I returned it to the water, but no obvious signs of life.
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| .........I think its jellyfishing days are done! |
