Saved by the Moss!

Another dry but mainly overcast day. The light NE wind continues.

North shore - low water 11:50

Pete checked:

Low tide channel area as viewed from Knowlys was dead - 30ish Eider only, no Brent 

I had a quick look in the skear corner (MD). This Curlew has a crab, two Bar-Tailed Godwits watch on. Crabs limbs have evolved to break away relatively easily, they grow again, starting at the next shedding of the old exoskeleton. It allows them to escape when grabed by a limb, unfortunately it also means they are relatively easy to disarm before eating.

The Curlew stuck at it for about a minute, but eventually gave up and the crab survived, albeit a limb or two missing.
 

Heysham Moss Nature Reserve (MD)

A mid afternoon walk. This reserve is just outside the recording area, but all the birds mentioned below, with the exception of the Herons, were seen to fly over the bypass, either from or into the recording area.

Barn Owl 1 - flew from the recording area carrying what looks to be a vole.

Barn Owl

Buzzard 1 - initially resting in a tree on the Moss, before flying across the bypass to Imperial Rd.

Common Buzzard

You can hear the cars along the bypass in this clip.

Sparrowhawk 1 flew high to SW

Woodcock 1 - unusually high and straight and again to south

Woodcock

Thrushes sp c150 - again flying south, unfortunately the light was behind them making identification difficult, but at least some of them appear to be Fieldfare (MD)

Grey Heron 3 - it is "frogging season". Lots of frogs gathering to spawn, makes for easy feeding! I'll spare you the clips. 

Little Grebe numbers increasing

A light NE wind, some sunshine with the odd light shower

First a couple of nice Curlew shots from Kevin Singleton taken a couple of days ago. 

One landing with its feathers acting like air brakes, only hopped off the wall

Just my afternoon stroll around Middleton Nature Reserve so far today (MD)

Mute Swan - 5 immature on the main pond, the two adult back to the "no swimming" pond where they nested last year. At least one more adult on Tim Butler pond.

Coot 6

This one was in flight across the main pond

This is why, it was being chased away from another's territory. This is the chasing bird

The two Coot on the "no swimming" pond were more relaxed

Moorhen 6

Mallard 16

Gadwall 8

Teal 2 on western scrape

Little Grebe at least 6 - these are three birds on the main pond. One of the two together was trilling, 

Summer plumage Little Grebe 

Water Rail 1 squealing 

Common Snipe 4

Grey Heron 1

Heron coming in to land on the "no swimming" pond

Little Egret 2 together flying east

Pheasant 1 male calling

Cetti's warbler 2 - singing birds on central and western marshes

Skylark 2 grounded bird(s) accidentally flushed

The battle lines are redefined

A cold light NE breeze. Overcast with a few sunny spells.

Heysham Nature Reserve 

Ringing report from Alan:

John and I went to Heysham and set just one mist net in the feeder ride between 10.00 and 14.00. It was rather cool with a light northerly breeze to start with which strengthened and veered towards the east later on - not a good direction for that ride. 34 birds were captured, 19 of which were retraps. There were fewer finches than we had hoped.

Dunnock 5 retraps

Robin 5

Long-tailed tit 2 + 4 retraps

Blue Tit 1 + 3 retraps

Great Tit 1 + 5 retraps

Greenfinch 5

Goldfinch 1 + 1 retrap

Bullfinch 1 retrap

Heysham skear, low water 10:00 (MD)

Unusually, no geese of any description seen or heard.

Shelduck pair on the water before flying off north (they are uncommon on this side of the harbour)

Eider 35 - this female was calling for her mate who was just a bit further out, unfortunately her calls aren't really audible in this clip, still it does show that they are not the drab brown duck that they appear at distance.

Great Crested Grebe 2

Red-breasted Merganser 9

Little Egret - none on the skear but one close inshore

Waders: Oystercatcher c1,000, Curlew c15, Bar-Tailed Godwit 4, Redshank 50+, Turnstone 30+, no Knot, Dunlin 10.

The waders only actually feed on the Honeycomb worms when their beds are damaged and the worms accessible. But most do feed on and around the smaller beds, as the crevices hide all sorts of invertebrates. In this clip there are Oystercatchers, Turnstone and Dunlin. One of the Oystercatcher finds a small crab.

The recent series of very high spring tides has damaged some of the Honeycomb worm beds. It's not the height of the tide that does the damage it is the force of the rapidly ebbing currents as huge volumes of water drains very quickly. Here it has stripped a large section down to the skear bottom.

The area on the right was the same as that on the left before this set of tides

This shot shows why the waders don't try and reach the worms in undamaged beds. This is the detail of the above face (I haven't pre-sized it in case you want to open it, to better see the detail). This bed is 20cm high, and when not feeding the 2cm worm retreats to the bottom of its tube.

Detail of Honeycomb worm tubes

As well as this area being stripped away, there are new "Grand Canyon like" features that were just narrow drains before.

Additional areas of Honeycomb worm beds swept away

I said on the 26th January that the battle line had been drawn for this year's struggle between the Mussels and the Honeycomb worms for dominance of the skear. There are still large areas of honeycomb worm beds, but this last set of tides has reduced the starting point for the worms, they will not regain this ground before the seed mussels arrive. 

Although I showed a clip earlier of the waders feeding on a small honeycomb worm bed, they rarely feed on the large areas covered by the worms. In contrast the mussel beds are major feeding areas for waders and gulls when the tide is out, and Eider when the beds are covered.

Barn Owl crosses over

A light but cold NE breeze. Overcast with a few very light showers.

First, David Talbot took this nice shot of Common Snipe on the saltmarsh yesterday

Two Common Snipe

Imperial Road (MD)

I didn't have much time today, so just a short, but productive, visit in passing (this is the road that goes from the first roundabout on the bypass (Bay Gateway) from Heysham to the waste recycling centre).

Buzzard 1 

Great Spotted Woodpecker 1

Redwing 14  (plus I forgot that Mark reported one from Middleton Nature Reserve yesterday). Not a great clip, but a bit short of material today.

Pink-Footed Goose c250 - they must have been feeding in fields just south of here when a passing helicopter lifted them. They flew overhead then headed towards the river Lune.

Barn Owl 1 - it had caught a rodent and was flying north with it. This was 14:30, there has been little nighttime rain recently so it shouldn't need to feed during the day to sustain itself.

Barn Owl

The bypass is just to the right in this clip, you can hear the cars passing by.

Just after this clip it flew across the bypass, still with its catch, towards Heysham Moss Nature Reserve, where I saw it or another last Monday. Speaking of which.......

Just out of the recording area - Heysham Moss Nature Reserve 

Janet had an early morning walk:

Great Spotted Woodpecker drumming

Roe Deer 1 mature male

Mature Roebuck 

I stopped along Oxcliffe Rd to check the geese (MD). There seemed more than yesterday, but I could only find Pink-Footed geese. This clip is only a small proportion of them but gives a sense of numbers and their proximity to the busy road.

Plenty of geese "around"

A light NW, later shifting to NE wind. Plenty of sunshine with an odd light shower.

Heysham Head (MD)

I went at low water to check the location of the reef I saw yesterday. Today's low water was 0.3m higher than yesterday so the the reef wasn't as exposed. I doubt it is a new feature, but is certainly higher than previous years and if the honeycomb beds don't get smothered by this year's mussels, it will continue to grow. It is directly out from Heysham Head, and today appeared as two separate reefs, but they are connected.

A honeycomb worm reef forming out from Heysham Head. It will only be visible during the 
lowest tides (1m today), but will attract marine life around it and should be attractive to diving birds.

Looking north from the Head on these low spring tides you can see the full extent of the 
skear. The outer skear is on the far left. The rest visible on this shot is the middle skear.

Rock Pipits 5 at least, there was a displaying male on the northern tip, he attracted two other birds. Below the high cliffs were two lots of two birds, possibly one of these pairs had been with the displaying male earlier.

Greenfinch 10 - they were concentrated in the bushes at the northern edge of the Head. These are some of them.

Linnet 2 (but the gorse on the southern section not checked)

Goldfinch 2 in the wooded area

There was lots going on in the Glebe garden (always worth a visit). This male House Sparrow made me smile, where else would a House Sparrow want to nest?

He managed to attract a female

Following yesterday's theme of spring flowers.........

A lot of snowdrops are already going over, but this stand was nice

As were the swathes of Crocuses - Daffodils nearly out too

South shore (MD)

Kittiwake 2 adult and 4 first winter still in the harbour. This adult was taking a bath.

Shag 1 immature on wooden jetty

Immature Shag, third from the left.

Pale-bellied Brent goose 6 - they were just landing on Red Nab as I walked out, and on my return they were obviously getting ready to leave, so I took this clip.

Rock Pipit 4 - lighthouse, Red Nab and 2 on saltmarsh. So minimum of 9 seen today

Common Snipe 3

Jack Snipe - 3 snipe that flew from the line of marsh grass to the south and landed on the saltmarsh looked to be Jacks

Middleton Nature Reserve (Mark Jones)

Mute Swan 5 juvenile on the peninsula, the 2 adult were back on the pond, other wildfowl unchanged.

Male Pochard on "no swimming" pond

Cormorant feeding on the main pond

Just out of the recording area - Pete checked the large numbers of, mainly, Pink Footed geese feeding in the fields adjacent to Oxcliffe Road. Unfortunately, many remained obscured by the hedges, but out of the visible birds he managed to locate:

Barnacle Goose 4

Russian White Fronted Goose 2

It was a lovely day.....

A light overnight frost. Almost breathless early on then a light NW breeze freshened slightly. Sunshine all day.

First a few of the brilliant shots Howard took of yesterday's colour ringed Knot. Definitely worth opening to really enjoy.

Today

Heysham skear - low water 08:00 (MD)

It was a beautiful morning to be on the skear.

Pink-footed goose 3 skeins SE totalling 170. 2 skeins north totalling 96. Both directions looked like local movement. These are some of the north bound birds, directly over my head.

Eider c40 but almost certainly more in the outer channels - these are 4 flying in.

When the tide begins to come in the crabs come out from under the mud to feed. I'm surprised there are any left the speed the Eider catch and eat them!

Great Crested Grebe 2

Red-breasted Merganser  12 - this is a feeding party, mergansers also take crabs.

These three males had something other than feeding on their minds. 

Did you spot the gull with a starfish?

Little Egret just 1 again - I didn't see it catch anything, they don't seem to bother with the crabs, despite this Redshank showing how it's done.

I managed a nice shot of it flying off disgruntled 

Waders - many more than what's recorded here were on the outer skear and beyond: Oystercatcher c1,000, Knot 50, Dunlin 10, Curlew 20, Redshank 100+, Turnstone 50+

Skylark 1 over to north.

A new reef has formed/grown. It looks to be out from Half Moon Bay and is covered in honeycomb worm beds. Reefs like this attract small fish, so should in turn attract small fish eating birds. Not at low water like this, but when the reef is underwater.

This large reef seems to be halfway between the skear and the North wall buoys
I'll check the location properly tomorrow 

Middleton Nature Reserve (MD)

There were just the 5 immature Mute Swan on the main pond. 2 adult were on Tim Butler, but I don't think they were the ones normally on the main or "no swimming" ponds.

Mallard 9

Gadwall 8

Pochard 1 male

Teal 2 on "no swimming" but several heard on Tim Butler pond

Coot 6

Moorhen 6

Snipe 1

Woodcock 1

Roe Deer 1 male

It is still February, but it did feel like spring today. This Dunnock was singing.

A queen Bee sp flew by, and......

 Primroses in full bloom

Knot......a good day at the office!

A light, mainly NW wind. Overcast with the occasional light shower.

Kittiwake - 5 resting on their pipe in the harbour yesterday - ref Kevin

Heysham Nature Reserve (MD)

A pleasant stroll around mid morning, nothing spectacular, but plenty to see:

Blackbirds 10+

Song Thrush 2 singing

Long-Tailed, Great and Blue Tits in good numbers

Goldfinch c30 , Greenfinch c10 and Bullfinch 8 - no Chaffinch of Siskin seen or heard.

These Goldfinch are feeding on the Alder cones - Song Thrush singing in the background 

This is a male and two female Bullfinch feeding on the swelling buds.

Male Bullfinch

Just a few each Robin, Dunnock, Wren

A lot of Magpies, there seemed to be 8 bickering plus another 4 trying to go about their business. Carrion Crow 2

Wood Pigeon 6

Moorhen 2

Sparrowhawk  inevitability 1

Roebuck 1 young male - he had a good look at me before deciding that I wasn't to be trusted.

So, plenty of wildlife to enjoy here, even through there was also a children's nature day in progress.

A little later Jean did some ringing here, this is her report:

I did a bit of ringing today. Yet more Bullfinches. Nine different ones have been caught recently (11th, 14th and 22 Feb)

Today's haul from 11:55 to 13:50:

Goldfinch 7 (only one retrap)

Bullfinch 4 (two retraps)

Long-tailed Tit 6 (3 retraps)

Blue Tit 5 (3 retraps including one from 2019 and one from 2021 originally ringed at Middleton NR)

Imperial Rd (MD)

Just a quick look in passing late morning

Buzzard 1 - heard only, it must have been on the far side of the trees

Teal 21 - these are some of them - not an overly informative clip as far as the Teal goes, but it does give a good idea of the terrain west of Imperial Rd.

Common Snipe 2 flying around

Stock Dove 2 flew north

Jackdaw 65 feeding on a small area of higher ground. A lot of the lower land is waterlogged, perhaps the invertebrates have moved up.

Heliport 

At 10.3m today's high water is the highest it will be till September. Howard was there to try and read any colour ringed Knot. He managed to read an astonishing 22 birds! It will take him a while to go through his many pictures.

Just out of the recording area

Mark Jones watched the tide cover the marsh grass near his caravan just south of the recording area. Four Skylark were flushed. This one deciding to sing.

I really miss them singing in the recording area, they used to provide an almost constant background music!

Barnacles top a busy goose day

A light SW wind overcast but it remained dry.

There was quite a bit of varied goose movement today, mainly Pink-Footed. Kevin Eaves saw a very high flock of c2,000 heading NW 14:30 in a purposeful manner. Pete advises that Pink-Footed geese have also been heading north along the east coast today.

More local movement was a low skein c200 to the east over my house at 09:00 and c80 south at 15:00.

But not just Pink-Footed.

Barnacle Goose 6 to NW over Middleton Nature Reserve at 12:05 - scarce in the recording area

Barnacle Geese - a heavily cropped shot, they were quite high (MD)

The local movement of the Brents is covered below.

Red Nab to Saltmarsh 10:00 -10:45 (MD)

There were no Pale-bellied Brent feeding on Red Nab as I arrived, then 10 flew in from the south (more on this later)

Wigeon c200

Shelduck c80

Rock Pipit 2 - 1 each Red Nab and saltmarsh 

Turnstone 50 in one flock

Common snipe 86 flushed from saltmarsh 

I didn't wait till the saltmarsh was fully covered, but did wait till the tide covered the line of marsh grass to the south of the saltmarsh. No Jack Snipe seen today.

This is looking south from the saltmarsh, on the left is the "rocky outcrop", and far left the faux castle.
The dark line just above the waterline is the line of marsh grass which now follows the freshwater 
channel. Water almost constantly drains over the shoreline here, again more on this later.

Great White Egret 1 SE 10:20

Great White Egret - another heavily cropped shot

Heliport 

Just a couple of the ringed Knot identified by Howard today.

Spot the ring.......you'll probably need to open the picture 

Heysham Head (Mark Jones)

It was a nice day for a walk around the Head, if nothing else, the views are great.

Curlew

Eider

Redshank 

No Rock Pipits seen or heard

Middleton Nature Reserve (MD)

Just a stroll around exercising my daughter's dog. This is where I saw the Barnacle geese.

Mute Swan 2 adult 5 immature 

Pochard 1 male

Gadwall 4

Mallard 4

Teal 2

Coot 4

Moorhen 6

Little Grebe 2

Great Spotted Woodpecker 1

Sparrowhawk 1

Just out of the recording area

Mark Jones has just arrived at his holiday caravan. The beginning of the caravan site can be seen in the above shot from the saltmarsh, it is just south of the faux castle which is nominally the southern boundary of the recording area. Look what Mark saw when he opened his curtains this morning.

The important thing here is the green swathe close in. The coastline here is boulder clay and groundwater constantly seeps out below it (even during the deep freeze and hot spells). This results in gutweed growing between the rocks. It's a relatively quiet area, but the few walkers around must pass along here, otherwise the Brent would be feeding here constantly (at any time except during the highest spring tides). Perhaps this explains why the Red Nab birds arrived from the south today (they normally come from the play area rocks to the north). 

The ground water eventually drains into the creek that defines the saltmarsh and it is now lined for most of its way by marsh grass.

Grey Plover and Ringed Plover in the same area

Cetti's warbler singing at the top of Carr Lane to the caravan site, Mark has not heard one here before

Jack Snipe turn up

A fresher SW wind. Overcast but mainly dry, just occasional drizzle 

Heliport 

First a couple of nice shots that Howard took yesterday.

Rock Pipit on the heliport sloping wall

Curlew dismembering a shore crab before swallowing it "whole"

The Knot were more active today and Howard and Richard managed to identify 11 birds

One of today's colour ringed Knot

Red Nab to Saltmarsh - high water 11:15 (MD)

No Brent geese seen this morning, but still lots of Wigeon and c30 Shelduck

Red-breasted Merganser 1 female 

Lapwing 14 on saltmarsh 

Also, Curlew, Oystercatcher, Redshank and Turnstone 

Some of the Turnstone - sometimes it hardly seems worthwhile taking "colour" photographs!

Rock Pipit 4 - 1 on Red Nab plus 1 + 2 together on the saltmarsh 

Reed Bunting 3 on saltmarsh 

Today's high tide at 9.3m easily covered the saltmarsh, as would the overnight tide. The snipe tend to get "fed up" of being flushed and numbers normally reduce as the spring tides progress. Even so, reasonable numbers again today.

Common Snipe 76 flushed from saltmarsh by the rising tide......then

Jack Snipe 4 - these flew in together from the south, probably flushed from the line of marsh grass now stretching along the shore between the rocky outcrop and Potts Corner. They made to land on what little was left of the saltmarsh. 1 did land, but the others turned round and headed for Middleton Nature Reserve.

Just out of the recording area - Heysham Moss Nature Reserve (MD)

This reserve is along the eastern boundary of the recording area, but always worth a visit, although I didn't have very much time today

Barn Owl 1 - a dog walker with a couple of dogs was approaching, I think they may have flushed it. 

Barn Owl

This clip isn't great, I was trying to get to higher ground for a better view. The bark towards the end is one of the approaching dogs.

I expect its hunting sorties will take it within the recording area. One to watch out for.

Knot initially static, Snipe erratic

Quite a light SW wind. Mainly overcast but it managed to stay dry(ish).

First, Janet sent these shots she took during a walk along the south sea wall yesterday.

Blue Tit, choosing a sunflower seed from a selection of treats
left by regular visitors to the Nature Park

Red Nab Rock Pipit

Turnstiles on the sloping sea wall

Redshank on No.1 outflow 

First winter Kittiwake, also on No.1 outflow

First winter Kittiwake feeding on No.2 outflow

Curlew on Red Nab rocks

Back to today, I just checked the saltmarsh at high water (MD)

9.3m high today, enough to flush any Jack Snipe, but none seen.

When I got there, tide was already as high as it reached yesterday, even so there were still lots of Common Snipe being flushed. 124 counted leaving the saltmarsh plus two flocks (27 and 32)  flew over, didn't land today, from the NW. I suspected they came from the Heliport area, and Jean's report below suggests that was the case. Anyway, it resulted in an impressive total......

Common Snipe 183 - these are some of the birds leaving the saltmarsh 

Pale-bellied Brent goose - 14 seen flying from Red Nab direction towards Potts Corner at 09:45. Once again, Blackpool Tower finds itself in the background.

Reed Bunting 2

Rock Pipit 1

Heliport 

Howard had the opposite problem to recent outings, the main body of Knot was stationary in the middle of the outer wall.

Knot and Oystercatcher on the outer Heliport wall

Still, perseverance eventually paid off and he did manage to read two ringed birds

Colour coded ringed Knot

Howard had to leave, but Pete and Jean were doing a webs high water roost count, this report from Jean:

High drama on the heliport today with a female Sparrowhawk spooking 4200 Oystercatchers, 10200 Knot, 350 Redshank and 100 Turnstone. The Sparrowhawk was making off with one of the waders when a Peregrine swooped down on the Sparrowhawk and chased and swooped a bit more but the Sparrowhawk managed to escape with its dinner.

About a third of the Knot heading off

Loads of Wigeon at Red Nab - 285 - and 40 more on the saltmarsh. 14 Pale-bellied Brent at Red Nab (same birds as above).

51 Cormorants and the Shag roosting on the wooden jetty.

Imperial Rd (MD)

Just a quick in passing check

Little Egret 4

Song Thrush 2 singing

Redwing 1 in a bush by the road

Redwing

Thrush sp 6 small thrushes flying south