Saturday 19 November 2022

A decent variety

Very light SSE breeze.sunshine pretty much all day 

Heysham Nature Reserve 
Jean had
Water Rail 1
Woodcock 1
Brambling 1 over

Heysham Head
Red-Throated diver 1 on dropping tide (Pete)

South Shore
I just checked saltmarsh to Red Nab (MD)
Linnet 40
Greenfinch 3
Goldfinch 5
Reed Bunting 4
Rock Pipit 2
All the above on or around the saltmarsh 
Shelduck 140 out from foreshore 
Wigeon 185 on beach between Red Nab and No.2 outflow till flushed by a dog
Kingfisher 1 flew out from the freshwater culvert on Red Nab

Nature Park
Chiffchaff 1 calling 
Bullfinch 2 calling

Kevin Eaves checked along the sea wall
Grey Plover 1 briefly near wooden jetty
Red Admiral 1
Small Tortoiseshell 1

Steve Brown provided this detailed report and some very nice shots:
I had a decent walk today, starting from Heysham NR along the dog path to The caravan pk to the Saltmarsh back to Red Nab and back along the dog path 11:30 -1530

Dog paths:
Bullfinch 2, Greenfinch 3, Goldfinch 20+, Chiffchaff 1, Jay 1, Goldcrest 2 , Redwing 2, Sparrowhawk, Long-tailed Tit 5, Coal tit 2, Raven, numerous other woodland birds including Robin, Blackbirds, Dunock, Blue tit, Great tit, Magpies, Carrion Crow.

Ocean Edge, Salt Marsh and Red Nab
Rock Pipit 2, Snipe 7, Curlew 9, Shellduck 120+, Redshank c20, Black-headed gulls 12, Little Egret 3
Male Bullfinch 

Jay

Coal Tit

Heysham skear - low water 14:15 (MD)
Red-breasted Merganser 5
Great Crested Grebe 3
Eider 1
Little Egret 11
Pale-bellied Brent goose 4 - these behaved like visiting birds have in previous years. They were in the SE corner of the skear picking up the odd bits of sea lettuce around. Sometimes feeding while on the water, but when they emerged to feed it was clear that none were ringed. 
You can see a few patches of sea lettuce on the mud


There is a lot more gut weed closer to shore, including in the middle distance rocks out from the children's play area. Hopefully we will see them there soon, when high water occurs later in the day.

Shag 1 - the 2nd calendar year bird was resting on conger rock before starting to fish as the tide turned.
As well as the Oystercatcher, Curlew, Redshank and Turnstone there were
Knot c200 just resting not feeding
Dunlin 5
Bar-Tailed Godwit 16 - this one catches a small worm or, more likely, the tail tip from a large worm (they easily detach to stop the worm being dragged out by its tail). It then nicely displays its bared tail.

Finally, Kevin Eaves took this clip along the south wall. Like all predator prey sagas, the predators are reliant on the prey, the more prey available the more predators can survive. We have recently established that the in the right conditions the sea wall is the focus of a significant insect flight path. The spiders have known this for some while, and there are a lot of them!
"A mini safari played out on the sea wall this morning. The stalking and pouncing of this Zebra spider, was big cat like, but I didn't get my phone out in time to catch the action". (Not one for arachnophobes!)