Saturday 18 December 2021

Mist out!.......all day!

Calm and cool, it was a mute point if we had, mist, fog or very low cloud, the upshot was visibility down to 20m over water all day.

I made an effort in the morning, but the mist was worse than it appeared from home (MD)
Middleton Nature Reserve 
Just a quick check of the two main ponds - yep, they were still there!
A lot of, mainly Black-Headed, gulls on the main pond with the Mute Swans and 6 Mallard.
But the "no swimming" pond was almost hopeless. I could hear Gadwall but could only make out the occasional white speculum drifting through the mist.
The male Tufted duck and the Coot were occasionally just visible.
Pink-Footed goose - their overhead calling was a constant background noise, they were moving in all directions trying to locate their feeding areas.
This clip gives a sense of what it was like, I was trying to make out the other pale duck in the background, but decided it was probably, just a male Mallard.

Red Nab an hour before high water
No Brent geese. I would have been surprised if they had ventured across the bay today.
Shelduck c20
Wigeon 2
Rock Pipit 1
Heron 1
Little Egret 2
One benefit of the mist is that it works both ways. This Little Egret was oblivious to me, as it fed just within visible range, in the large pool in the middle of Red Nab. It's catching quite large shrimps, you can see it disturbing them from the pool bottom with its feet. 

This next clip is shorter but a bit better view of the prey. You can see the shrimp wriggling in the Egret's bill. It's that "wriggling" that gives it away as a shrimp. A shrimp can't wriggle in the proper sense as its segmented body only allows it movement along one axis, much like your fingers and exactly like this catch.
Did you hear the Rock Pipit at the start of this clip?

Let's hope the mist clears for tomorrow, but I'm not optimistic!