Saturday 18 June 2022

First adult Med "returns".

A cold but fortunately quite light WNW wind all day. Warmer in the sunny spells.

Just my stuff so far (MD)

Heysham skear - low water 09:40
Canada Goose 8 north
Eider 6 female (1, 2 & 3)
Red-breasted Merganser 9 (1, 4, 2 & 2) - the tide was just starting to come in and these four were snorkelling along the skear edge. When they feed like this it is normally for crabs, but this male caught a small flatfish without having to dive. I say small flatfish, but it took some swallowing.

This is a still from the above clip, it is a decent sized meal, probably a Dab.
Male Red-breasted Merganser with a flatfish

The only waders apart from the Oystercatchers were 4 Curlew.

This shot is the east side of the outer skear. It's silting over, this area was mussel beds when it was last exposed
The outer skear and parts of the middle skear are silting over, smothering the  mussels - not good!

Mediterranean gull 1 adult - this bird was feeding in the same location along the north side of the skear as a regular bird did last year, the "returns" in today's title presumes it is the same bird. Meds look splendid in summer plumage, but this one has clearly begun its "autumn" moult (sorry!). It can only be described as "having a bad hair day".

You can even make out its loose feathers in flight.


A walk along the south wall this evening also located
Mediterranean gull 3 x 2nd calendar year and 1 x 3rd calendar year 
2cy Mediterranean gull in flight

Resting 2cy Mediterranean gull - this one with much of its head dark

Resting 3cy Mediterranean gull

In this clip the 3cy Med nicely displays its plumage.