A splash of colour on a grey day!

Strong SE wind in the morning moved to SW by afternoon and W by evening. Thick low cloud in the morning inevitably gave way to heavy rain which continued till evening.

Only a fool would venture out today.......so, only my stuff (MD)

South Shore

I managed to walk along the wall and half way back before the rain started. The tide was fully out and I wasn't expecting to see much, and indeed I didn't see much. But it was a bit better than expected.

Rock Pipit 1 on Red Nab

Kingfisher 1  - it actually flew out from the freshwater culvert in the sloping wall on Red Nab. It had a small fish, so it must have caught it in there. The water reaches there in large diameter pipes, no chance of it fishing in them (no perch (pun not intended, but I like it!)). So it must have fished in the pool just below the pipes. So either a freshwater fish or at least one that tolerates freshwater. Unfortunately I can't tell the fish species from my shots, but not a round body of a goby. 

After it had swallowed the fish it flew over to a rock along the freshwater stream. It didn't try to fish again while I watched it, but it seems to be well fed.

Pink-Footed Goose a solitary bird heading south, initially it was very high but lost height and appeared to land on the mud between here and Fylde. Presumably it had become detached from its skein and needed a rest. When a hundred Pinkfoot go over calling they are unmistakable, but one silent bird wasn't initially obvious.

Solitary Pinkfoot - you can tell it's a slow news day!

Mediterranean gulls 4 adult on the seaward end of the beach near wooden jetty.

Eider 2 feeding around the end of the wooden jetty. The tide was a long way out so the crabs in the deeper water here will become accessible. This is the last upright of the jetty.

As the tide was so far out, I took the opportunity to take this clip of No.1 outflow. This outflow attracts more gulls etc to its seaward end than No.2 outflow does. This is why. Towards the end of the outflow there are two sharp, high, drop offs. The effect of this is that the water becomes turbulent again and any sunken bits of food are brought to the surface, even when the water is quite deep. No.2 outflow has a very shallow drop off, so does not provide such a redistribution of food bits (the fish take advantage here, probably why the recent Osprey was feeding there). There are some distant Black-Headed gulls in this clip, more than were feeding along the outflow.

Grey Wagtail 1 colour ringed bird on the newt pond. Unfortunately it was tipping down by this time and all my optics were stashed, so I failed to get the full combination. But a reminder to check all Grey Wagtails, there have been a lot colour ringed, both this and in previous years.