Freezing, not flaming, June!

A cold ENE wind, with no sunshine to warm the day. Some showers but thankfully, dry for most of the afternoon for Morecambe's street party along the promenade, but I bet they were cold!

Pete managed an accurate count of the gulls this morning:

865 immature herring gull, mainly 2cy

6 Great Crested Grebe 

2 Red Breasted Merganser  

The above on/around the skear

15 adult Black Headed Gulls on the outflows

Shag 2cy on wooden jetty

I also had a look on the skear at low water (MD).

I was back in full winter plumage, including woolly hat and fingerless mitts!

Apart from Pete's records there were:

Eider 44

Curlew 3

Whimbrel 1

Shag 1 - by this time resting on Conger rock with three cormorants, waiting for the tide to ebb a little further before feeding.

South Shore (MD)

Just an evening stroll along foreshore and sea wall.

Rock Pipits - none seen on the saltmarsh or Red Nab, but four near the lighthouse. But I could only find one juvenile. This is the female:

She is still feeding the youngster, but there were lots of small flies around so it was trying to catch its own supper:

Unfortunately, the Power Station was blowing off steam, otherwise you would have been able to hear the male trying to distract me in the above clip. This isn't the male, it is the lame bird that has been around all year. You can see its contorted foot as it scratches itself in this clip (wonder how it scratches its left side). But plenty of small flies this evening  making for easy pickings.

Linnet - a male standing guard next to the known nest site near the lighthouse. It saw off at least two other pairs.

Shag 1 2nd calendar year - showing well in the harbour.

2nd calendar year Shag 
All three of today's Shag records likely to have been this bird

In this clip an immature Great Black-Backed gull walks by. Not sure if it shows how slight shags are or how large Great Black-Backed gulls are:

One the way back through the Nature Park, this Blue Tit was having a bath in the rain.