A light SE wind. Dry all day with plenty of sunny spells.
Heysham skear - low water 10:10 (MD)
Little Egret 11 - Kevin Singleton took these shots out from Whinnysty Lane
Red-breasred Merganser 5
Eider 1 male
No Great Crested Grebe seen
Whooper Swans 7 - distant and high heading south.
Dunlin 35Knot c400 - two flocks c150 each plus several small groups (presumably the same birds seen leaving later by Pete)
Jackdaw 2 flying around noisily. There are always Carrion Crows here (4 today), but Jackdaws are a bit unusual.
Pete checked from the Shore:
Shag 1 x 2cy feeding out from Heysham Head
Knot 450 then headed south
All the seaduck etc further up inc 5 Juv common scoter, well out of our area on north side of the Stone Jetty
Pink-Footed Goose - Janet took this shot of some of the late morning movement north over Middleton.
South shore mid afternoon (MD)
Shelduck 144
Wigeon 160
Rock Pipit 4
Meadow Pipit 1
Kingfisher 1
The tide was rising and there was quite a bit of activity between the two outflows
Eider 2 feeding
Great Crested Grebe 1 - not often seen here. It was feeding and preening. This clip is just a post feeding preen.
Shag 1 juvenile - it was feeding just out from the wall and was keeping pace with me as I walked along. It almost felt like taking a pet for a walk (swim).
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| 1st calendar year Shag |
It kept diving, but I didn't see it catch anything. There are fish here, but this is not an area that any previous Shag has routinely fed, so presumably it isn't normally ideal for them, and probably wasn't today.
