Little gulls linger

A very light breeze more or less from NW. Sunny in the morning but clouds gathering after lunch and rain in the evening.

Heysham skear - low water 10:15 (MD)

Very low neap tides at the moment low water was only 3.5m, barely exposing the inner skear. But it was a lovely morning and an enjoyable walk.

Shelduck 2

Eider 8

I had hoped that there may be Brent geese this morning, but no, although there is more gutweed here now than there was a month ago (still not much though).

Great Crested Grebe 4

Red-breasted Merganser 3

Little Egret 8

Oystercatcher 600

Curlew 10

Redshank 100

Knot 400

Turnstone 30

Dunlin 9

Bar-Tailed Godwit 17 - these are two godwit coming in to join a feeding party.

These are also godwits, but the clip is really about the beauty of the waves gently rolling in. Far from the distant barking dogs.

Bar-Tailed Godwit

This is another nice clip that gives a sense of the skear in these conditions. Nothing exciting, just Dunlin, Turnstone, Oystercatcher and Bar-Tailed Godwit going about their business.

South Shore

Shaun checked this morning:

Outfalls 09:00-10:30: 

1 Sub adult Little Gull

1 adult Mediterranean Gull 

1 juvenile Artic Tern still present (No. 2). 

Wigeon just 104.

I checked late afternoon just before the rain began (MD)

Shelduck 115

Bar-Tailed Godwit 6 on the rising tideline

Number 2 outflow was still holding the main birds of interest:

Little Gull 3 - the 2nd calendar year/adult bird plus 2 x 1st calendar year. Both the young birds appear in this clip, by this time (15:45) the light was already fading quickly!

First calendar year Little Gull

Arctic Tern 1 juvenile 

Red-Throated Diver 1 - this seems to be a different bird, still obviously in moult (I've never seen such a pathetic wing flap!), it appears to have remnants of its red throat, unless it is an oil stain.

This clip begins with it swallowing a small fish, then pans out to show just how close to the sea wall it was feeding.

Red-Throated Diver