Egyptian Goose adds some glamour

The ESE wind freshened during the day. Mainly high cloud with occasional sun and a couple of light showers.

First an update from Pete of a long distance Robin:

There is always a small spring passage of Robin at Heysham and one was caught with someone else’s ring on 2/4/22.  We’ve just found out It was ringed on autumn passage last year at Nanjidzal, Lands End.  Maybe Scottish or maybe Scandinavian bird?

Jean and Pete managed some vis this morning. Report from Jean:

Vis 0720-0920:

Meadow Pipit 181

Linnet 23

Goldfinch 12

Pied Wagtail 7

Lesser Redpoll 6

Swallow 6

Sand Martin 2

Chaffinch 1

Kestrel 1

Carrion Crow 9

Woodpigeon 6

Greylag Goose 1

Over the sea:

Egyptian Goose 1 (technically a MEGA)

Common Scoter 3

Red-throated Diver 1

Great Crested Grebe 1

Shore out from Half Moon Bay (MD)

10:00 - 11:00

Sandwich Tern 7 around the buoys. Unfortunately, these neap tides go out so slowly that the buoys were still beyond my camera range. This was about as good a clip as I could get. The birds flying north are just Oystercatcher.

Meadow Pipit a steady trickle north 18 in the hour

These Knot were on the shore in front of the old heliport wall. Like me, they were impatiently waiting for the tide to go out. This clip shows two things: a few are now moving towards summer plumage and one of them was colour ringed/flagged. Unfortunately not clear enough to read, and it immediately moved behind the group when I spotted it.

A second check in the afternoon 14:00 -15:00. The east wind was much fresher, there was no sign of any Sandwich Tern, but still a few:

Meadow Pipit 5

Swallow 4

This is something that I've never really understood and seems to becoming more common. This picture is cockles just below the mud surface. They are so tightly packed that they can't burrow any deeper.

A tightly packed clump of Cockles just below the mud surface

This one was about 0.5m diameter and there were probably 30 such clumps around the area. I understand why the cockles in the middle can't get deeper, but you'd imagine the ones around the edge would move out. The following is my best theory, but if anyone knows differently or has other ideas please let me know (MD).

These clumps tend to form where the mud is soft, perhaps too soft to allow Cockles to burrow up once they have gone below the surface. If there are small patches of firmer mud, the small cockles could occupy it normally, but as they grow, they would fill the area, as above, and presumably some around the edge drop into the abyss. Fortunately for the cockles, they have reached a size larger than the Oystercatcher can open, and the surrounding soft mud deters any sensible human walkers. Not sure if this type of clumping is becoming more common because cockle numbers are increasing or the extent of soft mud is increasing ( or both).

Heysham Nature Reserve 

Willow Warbler 2+ could be heard from the car park. This is a rubbish clip, the wind is howling and the bushes swaying. But it's so nice to hear Willow Warbler again, I thought I would share it anyway.

Janet took these lovely shots of two different male Orange Tip Butterflies. There was a small white and grey butterfly around as well, it could have been a female Orange Tip, or a Small White.

Male Orange Tip