Another freezing night. A light, but cold and freshening NE wind with a few rain/hail showers around lunchtime.
Middleton Nature Reserve (MD)
Not much change in the wildfowl although the Tufted were absent again. The "no swimming" pond was ice covered this morning, but remained ice free around the edges.
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| There were a few small groups of Teal flying around |
South shore high water 08:45 (MD)
Lapwing c50
Grey Plover 9
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| Grey Plover on saltmarsh shore |
Ringed Plover 5
Bar-Tailed Godwit 2
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| Bar-Tailed Godwits and a Redshank on saltmarsh shore |
Pale-bellied Brent goose 26 rolling into Red Nab (co-starring Shelduck and Wigeon - music by Curlew).
Kingfisher 1 feeding in the groundwater runoff stream on Red Nab - you'll like this one, the Kingfisher hovers for a second before making its dive.
The fish was a Common Goby, a seawater species. They can only reach this far up the stream when the tide is high enough to at least make it brackish.Rock Pipit 2 - Red Nab and Lighthouse
Kittiwake 45 minimum. 8 on outflows the rest in the harbour mainly near the waterfall.
Shag 1 (3rd calendar year) resting in the harbour before flying to wooden jetty.
North shore - afternoon ebbing tide
Howard went down to check the Knot flocks for ringed birds. He did well reading three from only 500 of the 3,000 Knot.
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| One of the ringed Knot read today, this one was originally ringed in 2014 Full details awaited |
Unfortunately, at that time a couple out for a ramble, first rambled along the rocks out from the play area, flushing 44 Pale-bellied Brent geese - these will include this morning's birds
They continued on to the skear and flushed the remaining Knot before Howard could scan them.
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| Knot |
End of session for Howard!
I had a walk out later towards low water (MD)
The Brent hadn't returned
Eider 26
Red-breasted Mergansers 1 male
Waders: Oystercatcher, Curlew, Redshank, Turnstone, Knot plus
Bar-Tailed Godwit c350, closer to the green marker post than the skear.
Dunlin 6
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| Dunlin |
