It blew and rained a lot!

Heavy overnight rain with a strong south to SW wind, not easing till the evening. The morning remained largely dry but heavy rain again in the afternoon and evening.

First, I've been saving this for a rainy day. It's one of Howards shots of the Knot on the Near Naze on Saturday.

It's worth opening, if only to see the water globules in freeze frame

South Shore today (MD)

I had a walk along the sea wall to watch the lunchtime ferry arrive - nothing other than juvenile large gulls behind it.

Rock Pipit 1 near wooden jetty

Shelduck 5

Wigeon 157 (I had time for an accurate count while waiting for my boat to come in).

Curlew 65 flew south past the roundhead in small groups. These are some of them battling the wind. The sea looks  relatively calm in this clip, this is because both the tide and the wind were heading in the same direction, in to the bay.

Curlew 

Shag 1 immature. Unusually, it was resting on the rail of No2 outflow.

Immature Shag with mature Cormorant in breeding plumage 

The tide was rising and it was soon displaced, but it tried to settle again a little further along.

It continued north, and I thought it was going to settle on the regular Shag roost on the wooden jetty. But it appeared to head in to the bay, although it could have gone in to the harbour. Either way atypical behaviour for the two regular birds.

Some shots from Janet:

Female and male (above) Red-breasted Mergansers out from Heysham Head

Female House Sparrow with nesting material at the north end 
of Moneyclose Lane