A light east wind till mid morning when it switched to the west and freshened slightly. Sunshine for most of the day but hazy at times.
South shore (MD)
A morning walk on the ebbing tide and very little was moving. Even the gulls on the outflows were resting.
Cormorant - only the immature birds remain on the wooden jetty.
Little Egret 6
Greenfinch 2
Linnet 8
Rock Pipit 3 - there were two adults above the next hole near the lighthouse.
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| Rock Pipit taking food to lighthouse area nest..... |
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| ........and this one, presumably the male, standing guard |
A third bird near the waterfall was also carrying food and flew out past the platforms to an unknown nest site. Presumably a hole in the harbour wall, but the location not seen, if indeed it is visible from this vantage point.
There were no waders at all apart from the Oystercatchers.
There was a male and female Bullfinch feeding on the dandelion seeds in the Nature Park. This is the female.
Another pleasant but uneventful stroll.
Eider 13 males plus 1 pair
Great Crested Grebe 3
Little Egret 3
Oystercatcher c400
Turnstone 2 (quickly flew off north)
Curlew 7 together flew onto the skear from SE
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| Curlew |
There were plenty of Herring Gulls, they were feeding on what seed mussels were exposed on this neap tide. This focuses them on the higher beds, which are the ones on top of the honeycomb worm reefs, once again, favouring the worms. Even though much of the feeding activity of the gulls does favour the preservation of the honeycomb worm beds and reefs, there does seem to be a lot of seed mussels this year, and they do grow quickly.
Middleton Nature Reserve
Janet managed some even better shots of the swallows collecting mud for nest building near Tradebe.
Heysham Head (Janet)
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| This male Linnet looks tempted by a passing fly, but they tend to stick to seeds |
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| A slightly unusual angle of a Wren |
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| Wren and Linnet |
Common Whitethroat 1 male
