Saturday 27 May 2023

Not bad for two quick checks

A light SW to west wind. Sunshine for most of the day.

I only had an hour free today, just after lunch, but it was relatively productive (MD)
Heysham skear - low water 12:00
Eider 3 (1 female)
Great Crested Grebe 3
Little Egret 3
Oystercatcher c150
Bar-Tailed Godwit 4 - 2 on the skear itself and 2 on the sandbar to the north.
Curlew 5
Dunlin 8 - 4 on skear plus 4 flew high to north from skear
Turnstone 3
Sanderling 16 - 7 + 3 feeding/resting on skear, plus 6 flew from skear low to the north.
Six Sanderling heading off to north

These are the resting seven, the bird at the very beginning of the clip gives one of their little "peeps", but you can barely hear it through my camera clicks.

These three were feeding on the western edge.

It isn't just the shore birds that take advantage of the bounty on the skear. I have shown Carrion Crows feeding here regularly, but Starlings also visit. This one has a youngster in tow, I think it is a small shrimp that is being fed.


On the way home, I called in on Imperial Rd.
Singing birds included:
Greenfinch
Goldfinch 
Chaffinch
Chiffchaff 
Lesser Whitethroat
Aslo:
Swallow 5
Jackdaw 5
Buzzard 2 adult seen, at least one youngster being fed but remained unseen. This adult is carrying in a rabbit.

It was heading for the tall stand of trees to the west of the road (within the recording area). Unfortunately, the bright sun was directly above the trees and I couldn't tell whether this bird handed the rabbit to its mate and flew off again or whether as it arrived, its mate flew off. Either way one adult flew off and another, with a rabbit, was lost from view by the trees. A few minutes later an adult perched on one of the outer branches, I was trying to see if I could see the nest, but got too close for comfort for the adult and was "warned off".

So I left, I continued to be shouted at till I was 100m away. Towards the end of this clip a Great Tit is blithely going about its business, oblivious to the Buzzard.

Common Buzzard and Great Tit