..........day two!

SSE wind with very heavy overnight rain continuing till lunchtime, it eased slightly in the afternoon but still some periods of heavy rain.

My closing comments yesterday of "can't wait", were of course tongue in cheek, although I don't really mind walking in the rain during the winter. You can at least wrap up well and keep warm and dry. The problem is that it is not really practical for photography, but that was mitigated today by there being very little around to photograph. The wind was in a poor direction and the tides indifferent, nevertheless I had a look (MD)

Imperial Road - just off the bypass to waste recycling centre

Grey Heron 2

Mallard 6

Teal 15

Wood Pigeon 24 feeding together 

South shore - "high" water 09:15

High water just about reached Red Nab, so a creditable:

Pale-bellied Brent goose 28

Wigeon c100

Shelduck 24

Cormorant 26 - there are always plenty around but this was a larger than usual number resting on Red Nab

This clip shows some of what was going on at Red Nab today

This shot provides a comparison of the smallish size of Brent Geese when compared with the large Sheldrake pictured below.

Shelduck left with Sheldrake right with Pale-bellied Brent geese

No Shag again in the Harbour - Pete advises that it is unusual for young birds to stay beyond the new year, let alone this late.

Goldfinch 36 - one flock near small anemometer, there is often a flock here, but typically only c12 birds.

Heysham skear - low water 16:15

Not a lot really

Eider 38

Pale-bellied Brent Goose 17 - 13 + 2 + 2 resting/feeding along western and northern edge of the skear. This clip shows the relative size of both species.

This is a couple stripping a rock of its last vestiges of gutweed.

No sign of either Great Crested Grebe or Red-breasted Merganser today

Hopefully more tomorrow, but I'm not optimistic. We'll probably have to wait for storm Dudley to stir things up later in the week.

Just a precautionary footnote:

I've had some technical  problems with the blog today. At the moment, it isn't preventing posts, but if there isn't one tomorrow it's a technical issue - there is always something to see.