Saturday 3 December 2022

Good Godwit day

A NE breeze at least moved the wind turbines and ruffled the sea. Plenty of sunshine, particularly in the afternoon.

Heysham skear - low water 14:20 (MD)
Not so much seen on the sea today
Great Crested Grebe 5
Red-Breasted Merganser 2
Eider 4
Pale-bellied Brent goose 4 feeding in SE skear corner
Shag 2 immature. It was the juvenile's turn to rest on conger rock today. It then dropped into the sea below, as it became shallow, and began snorkelling again. Meanwhile the 2nd calendar year bird was waiting on a reef on the north side till the tide stopped ebbing.
Little Egret 5
Waders: Oystercatcher, Curlew, Redshank, Turnstone plus
Knot c500
Dunlin - just a few singles flying around
Ringed Plover 8
Ringed Plover with three Turnstone 
Bar-Tailed Godwit a flock of 80 flew south. Unfortunately I didn't spot them till they were already flying into the sun, so didn't see where they came from or where they went.

Some of the Godwit with a likely Knot

Black-Tailed Godwit 1 followed them a few minutes later, at least I saw this earlier and suspect it had been feeding on the north side.
Black-Tailed Godwit


Middleton Nature Reserve 
Just a quick check on the way home found the wildfowl pretty much unchanged, except no sign of the Wigeon.
Jackdaw 46 (37 + 9). It was only 15:00 but this seemed to be the beginning of a pre roost gathering.