Sunshine pretty much all day, coolish WNW wind
South shore mid morning rising tide
At 09:50 the only birds on Red Nab were:
Shelduck 24
Little Egret 2
Kingfisher 1 male
Rock Pipit 2
220 Wigeon arrived at 10:00
43 Pale-bellied geese arrived from the north side at 10:20
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| Brent geese flying past the south wall roundhead |
No Shag seen this morning
I like this shot from Janet taken this evening from more or less the same area and the Brent picture above. It has everything, sun, sea, "sand" and Starlings preparing to roost on the wooden jetty. Please open to appreciate it.
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| Starlings preparing to roost |
Middleton Nature Reserve
A quick check in the morning, really just to see what the Jackdaw situation was - answer. As normal just 7 birds blogging around the main pond area.
No swimming pond:
Gadwall 35
Wigeon 2
Tufted 2 male
Shoveler 2 male in breeding plumage (so at least four birds over the past two days)
Little grebe 1
Coot 1
Moorhen 5
A patch of weed near the surface of the pond had concentrated the wildfowl this morning, this short clip captures most of the above.
I returned in the late afternoon, primarily to try and understand what was going on with the Jackdaw, but a short walk proved fruitful (MD):
Woodcock 1 - first record this winter period - flushed from strip to the east of the golf course
Common Snipe 4
Raven 2 just east of the reserve, but within recording area
Redwing 1
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| Solitary Redwing in the evening sun |
Pheasant 1 male
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| Male Pheasant seems strange without a white collar, presumably some colchicus ancestry. |
Jackdaw - when I first arrived there were still just 7 around. By 16:00 small flocks started arriving from the north, 63 in total by 16:10, although they seemed to have moved straight through. But they must have been arriving from other directions too, at 16:30 they flew up from behind the trees to roost on the south side pylon.
By 16:40 there were 130 on the south side pylon with another 38 on the north side pylon, so 168. Not as many as yesterday, but there could have been more a Sparrowhawk flushed them all, and it was getting too dark to watch them reassemble. I'll have a look again tomorrow and see if I can find where they are feeding pre-roost.Finally Kevin was delighted to find this Small Tortoiseshell sunning itself on his garden wall.
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| Small Tortoiseshell looking fresh, but it seems to have slept awkwardly on its antennae. |
