A cold NW wind all day, it started bright but after 09:00, mainly overcast but it remained dry.
Report from Pete
from heliport roost vigil over the tide.
Male Merlin heading south over sea
Mediterranean gulls - at least three distantly seen following in IoM ferry
Nothing of note in the roost
Heysham Nature Reserve
Report from Jean:
30 Pink-footed Geese flew south at 10:40
Ringing 11:10-12:55
8 new birds
4 Greenfinch
1 Goldfinch
1 Robin
1 Dunnock
1 Blue Tit
6 retraps
2 Great Tits
2 Blue Tits
2 Dunnocks
Rest of stuff mine, but not much of that. (MD)
Heysham skear - low water 07:40
Pink-Footed goose 493 in 10 skeins between 08:00 and 09:20.
All but one skein high and heading due south, but this one started low in an unstructured flock, before adopting a flying formation and heading west. I suspect they had been resting on a sand bar and had been flushed by the rising tide.
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| Pink-Footed geese, these are the ones that ended up flying west |
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| Pink-Footed geese, as the rest of this morning's birds were, in high skeins heading south |
Eider 16
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| Male Eider looking splendid in his fresh breeding plumage |
Great Crested Grebe 8
Red-breasted Merganser 8
Little Egret 18
Waders, just: Oystercatcher, Curlew, Redshank and Turnstone
Middleton Nature Reserve
Just a very brief look at the two main ponds
Mute 1 adult on the main pond the pair with their 7 cygnets on the "no swimming" pond
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| The Mute family on the "no swimming" pond |
Moorhen 3
Coot 1
Mallard 16 all on main pond
Gadwall 15 on "no swimming" pond
Little grebe 1
Insects seen in 10 minutes
Speckled Wood 3
Red Admiral 1
Migrant Hawker 2 (male and female)
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| Female Migrant Hawker |
Common Darter 1
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| Aged male Common Darter |
