Early seasonal record

A very pleasant, albeit short day, a very light south breeze and sunshine for much of the day.

South Shore

A mid morning walk along the wall then to saltmarsh (MD)

Kittiwake 2 adult on No.1 outflow. I have posted some detailed plumage pictures over the last few days, so today I decided to show what you typically see. There is at least one Kittiwake on show during this clip, two for some of it. It is a difficult seeing angle so you may need to watch the clip in slow motion. If you can't spot them, I'll provide clues at the bottom of this post.

Wigeon 160

Shelduck 120 - there was considerable bickering amongst the Shelduck today. Quite noisy too. I took this clip partly to capture the noise, unfortunately it was largely drowned out as I was pointing into the wind.

At the saltmarsh there was a flock of 42 Linnet flitting around, but no Reed Buntings seen. The tide was out and they would have been feeding on the marsh. A quick look later at high water located 5 again.

Steve Brown also was checking at this time, and in addition saw

Kingfisher 1 flew along wall towards small pool then into nature park

Some of the saltmarsh Linnet

Nature park
Chiffchaff 1

Greenfinch 3

Jay 1

Bullfinch 1

Goldfinch c10

Middleton Nature Reserve (MD)

Just another 10 minute stop by, but again I managed to hear a Chiffchaff calling and a Cetti's warbler singing - this clip is of a female Teal that had just come in, the Cetti's provides a short burst at the start of the clip.

Mute, Mallard, Tufted and Moorhen unchanged 

Teal 4

Gadwall 23

Little grebe 1

This is what today's title refers to. I'm pretty sure that this is the earliest ever record of a Father Christmas peddling down the sea wall on a Penny Farthing!

It wasn't easy spotting the Kittiwake on the outflow. If you didn't find them, the clip starts with one just right of centre at the top of the frame. It zigs to the right then zags to the left before zigging right again and leaving bottom right.

The second bird enters the frame in roughly the same position a few seconds later, this flies pretty much down the centre of the outflow and leaves the frame bottom left at the very end of the clip.

It's best just to watch one bird at a time (MD)