Light variable breezes. Some sunny spells
Heysham skear - low water 09:50 (MD)
I couldn't resist another look although I chose a a central, easier track today. I wasn't expecting much different and that proved to be the case. Eider, Great Crested Grebes and Red-Breasted Mergansers much the same. There were no Knot or Dunlin today. Ringed Plover 18 on the inner skear.
Pale-bellied Brent Goose 2 - milling around the honeycomb worm reefs. There is no food for them here, presumably they were just resting. (These are not what today's title refers to)
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| Pale-bellied Brent geese |
Carrion Crow 11 - they search the crevices in the honeycomb worm beds for food, but I don't really know what they are finding to eat. There are 9 in this clip.
South shore - high water 15:40
Kevin Eaves checked the sea wall and harbour
Kittiwake 17 minimum, 2 each on the outflows the remainder in the harbour, including 12 on their pipe.
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| First winter Kittiwake - nice shots to open to check the plumage details |
I set off at the same time (2 hours before high water) and checked the shore out from the saltmarsh (MD)
Shelduck 105
Wigeon c180 (remaining on Red Nab as I was heading back)
Common Snipe 22 flushed from saltmarsh
Reed Bunting 5 (saltmarsh)
Rock Pipit 4 (3 together on saltmarsh and Red Nab)
Kittiwake 1 x first winter near the saltmarsh
Lapwing 35 on saltmarsh There were lots of waders on the sore out from the saltmarsh being driven in by the tide, plus there were many more further south, just out of the recording area.
Bar-Tailed Godwit 280
Knot c800
Dunlin c200
Grey Plover 17
These are some of the Grey Plover and Knot
Pale-bellied Brent goose 44 - the "normal" sequence of movement on rising spring tides is that any birds feeding on the north side, fly to Red Nab as the tide covers the north side feeding areas. But at 14:25 these 33 flew from the south to Red Nab as seen from the saltmarsh shore.
At 14:55 I'd got back as far as the saltmarsh slipway when these 44 flew off south.
Perhaps the additional 11 had joined from the north side, or I could have missed them arriving from the south.
These clips are from this morning on the skear. You regularly get foxes on the shore including the skear, but it's normally after dark (their eyes shining back from your torchlight can be disconcerting) they scavenge any edible flotsam. This dog fox was giving me a stern look, but he wasn't overly perturbed. I didn't see the second fox (presumably a vixen) immediately, she was laid down ignoring me, but her erect ears showing that she was alert.
I gave them a wide berth and left them to it, although I suspect that they had already been to it! A little later a pet dog was barking, not at the fox, just from the shoreline. When I looked back the male fox was making his way across the beach towards Heysham Head, he was keeping a close eye on the barking dog, before upping his pace. I couldn't see the vixen, but suspect she was were I left them.
