The very light breezes continues mainly WSW to NW. Plenty of sunshine in the morning, high cloud in the afternoon made the sunshine intermittent.
Middleton Nature Reserve
Ringing report from John:
Set three nets this morning, which was wishful thinking given the continuing lack of bird movement. Only Lesser Redpolls were caught with an initial catch of seven, soon after setting, but only three more after.
I had also set a moth trap which only produced one micro moth a Diurnea Fagella.
South shore (MD)
Not much here either!
Shelduck 38
Wigeon 2
Linnet 2 flew north from lighthouse area, but possibly only as far as the sandworks on north wall.
Rock Pipit 4 - this one feeding on the south sloping wall seems to be finding plenty of small invertebrates amongst the recently exposed wrack.
Robin 1 near lighthouse were I haven't been seeing one over winter.
Heysham skear low water 14:55
Pale-bellied Brent goose 26 - initially there were several small groups (2-6) scattered around on the sea, on both sides of the skear. 26 was the most I could see at one time, but just after low water, 23 of them (seemingly the only ones still around) had gathered together on the north side. They looked to be posing for an "end of term" photo - so I took one.
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| Pale-bellied Brent geese with the South Lakes as a backdrop |
They were clearly restless, with lots of honking going on, normally only reserved for when they feel threatened. Then, just after the above shot they took flight west gaining height quickly, rather than their normal low flight to the west side. Is this goodbye till autumn? (Probably not, it's always difficult to identify the last record, until after the event, we'll see. (MD))
Eider c150 close in plus another large group, feeding further out
Great Crested Grebe 1
Red-breasted Merganser 3
Oystercatcher, Knot, Redshank, Turnstone and Curlew
