Awaited Brent ringing data now available

A dry and largely sunny day. The weakening west wind fizzled out to nothing.

Red Nab to Saltmarsh towards high water (MD)

Pale-bellied Brent Geese 12

Steve Dodd forwarded a link to the Irish colour ringing scheme - thanks Steve. It includes Brent Geese and has now been added to the links on the sidebar.

https://ibgrg.shinyapps.io/sightings/

Pete Crooks has used this to report the white ringed bird he saw 17/12/23. 

We now have a ringing date of 15/5/2018 at Grunnafjordur, Iceland and the latest record is the only subsequent sighting so far. 

This bird has been seen here on several occasions at least since January 2021, we will add other dates. 

Pink-Footed Geese 60 north at 10:20

Wigeon 180 ended up out from the saltmarsh 

Common Snipe 7 flushed from saltmarsh 

Grey Plover 1 sat by the edge of the saltmarsh, this clip is therapeutic (I love the sound of waves), but it also demonstrates how a bird's plumage can appear different when the background changes from bright to dark.

Grey Plover

Reed Bunting 1

Linnet 2

Imperial Rd (MD)

A lunchtime check

Pink-Footed goose 105 (78 & 27) north

Greylag goose 11 at least feeding in a field to the east of the road. Largely obscured by hedgerows.

Jackdaw 31 flew NE

There has been a lot of "slurry" spreading recently, presumably what was driving this large group of gulls (mainly Black-Headed and Herring) to swarm over the fields like locusts.

You can hear a Robin singing during the above clip. Here it is staking out its winter territory. Note the number of winter midges early in the clip.

Little Egret 5

Buzzard 1

Buzzard

Water Rail 1 squealing from the pond area on the SW side.

At least 1 Redwing and 10 Fieldfare were in the trees just next to the recycling centre gates.

Winter Thrushes in the trees just east of the recycling centre gates

There were also c50 Starlings feeding in the adjacent field and they kept flying to this tree too. Making counting the thrushes difficult.

One Redwing surrounded by Starlings

One of the Fieldfare

Fox 2 - one seen each side of the road. This one was being followed by a Magpie, but the Magpie legged it when the Fox started scratching. It clearly didn't want any fleas. Try and watch this without feeling itchy!

These weren't the only foxes showing well today, this from Pete Crooks:

A family walk across Heysham Barrows this lunchtime produced good views of a Fox on the rocks above the main path, which plenty of passing walkers were also able to enjoy.