Wet and windy!

A fresh west wind, the morning was fairly dray after early showers, but plenty of rain in the afternoon.

Heysham skear - low water 08:50 (Malcolm)

Pale-bellied Brent goose 37 at least, some in the SE skear corner, others feeding on the skear. Although recent heavy grazing has significantly reduced the easily available gut weed and there is very little sea lettuce left.

Some of the brent in the skear corner

Pink-Footed goose 2 flying low to the south

Pink Footed geese

Oystercatcher, Curlew, Redshank, Turnstone and Ringed Plover as recent.

Dunlin flock of 30 plus 2 inshore with the plovers.

Knot 700 in one very flighty flock. There were a few colour coded birds, but only one new one seen.

Some of the Knot with a Merseyside ringed bird centre

No Eider, Merganser or Grebes seen today.

Yesterday, this planet shone in the evening sky as I was finishing watching
the Stock Doves. This was before any stars were visible. My first thought was 
that it was Venus, then I remembered - Venus doesn't have any moons.

Kevin Eaves identified it as Jupiter and a little later took this
 slightly sharper image through his telescope, and kindly identified
the visible moons.
As they say.....the truth is out there

High Brent and Stock Dove counts, plus Shag origin now known

A bright sunny day but a bitingly cold NW wind

The first calendar year Shag located by Howard Stockdale on Tuesday was ringed. Howard managed a shot of it, clear enough to read the last four numbers. This, combined with its known age was enough for its ringing history to be traced. 

1st calendar year Shag on the Near Naze 17/12/24
Ringed as a nestling 16/06/24 on Puffin Island, Anglesey, Wales
The most regular source of ringed Shag in Lancashire 

North shore (Pete Woodruff)

112 Brent Geese off Knowleys Rd 11-50am (highest count so far this winter)

South shore (Malcolm)

I walked the tide in, on the shore out from Ocean Edge at lunchtime.

Once again, a skein of Pale-bellied Brent geese left Red Nab early and flew to the south of the Lune estuary. But "only" 58 of them. The others seen by Pete probably flew further south ignoring Red Nab, as did the large second skein I saw on Tuesday.

Some of the Pale-bellied Brent geese

Pale-bellied Brent geese and the incoming lunchtime ferry

Cormorants heading to their high water roost
Likely the wooden jetty 

An unusual mix of waders

There wasn't a single Knot anywhere on the shore for as far as I could scan.

Dunlin a flock of 28 was flying around.

Curlew 20 and Oystercatcher 100 were the only waders along the waterline, then

Bar-Tailed Godwit 400 - initially a flock of 45 landed out from the sea wall. Then they were joined by a larger flock.

The first flock of Godwits came from the north side.

Then they were joined by a large flock also from the north side

But the tide was coming in quickly at this stage, and they all took to the air and eventually drifted off further south.

Sanderling 3 - just as I was heading back they came from the south and fed briefly on the shore out from the sea wall.

Sanderling 

Middleton Nature Reserve (Malcolm)

Just a check from the south side as the sun was setting.

Jackdaw 200+ 

Some of the Jackdaw 

Wood Pigeon 10

Stock Dove 96 minimum came in to roost. Initially in small groups but later three larger groups of 12, 13 and 27. Definitely no overlap today.

Stock Doves

No sign of the Barn Owl this evening.

The sun had set, but the red contrails show it to be just over the horizon 

Shag still around

Strong overnight S-SE wind and heavy showers. The wind switched to SW and eased during the day. Showers ended by 09:00 and there were some sunny spells.

North Shore - Jean

Flock of 6 Pintail flew out quite distantly, 

1CY Shag flew out close inshore flew over Near Naze and carried on to wooden jetty.

South shore

I walked along the sea wall (Malcolm). 

A flock of Knot over the wooden jetty where the Shag moved to later

I did better with the Brent today, although there wasn't as many and all in one flock.

Pale-Bellied Brent goose 57

Brent geese arriving from the north side

Meanwhile, Janet was at Red Nab and watched them land.

But, once again, they didn't stay long and set off towards the Lune estuary.

Some of the c100 Wigeon.
There was also a female Eider around

Oystercatchers on Red Nab

In the Nature Park:

Great Tit

Blue Tit

Chaffinch 

One of three squirrels near the white barrier. They take advantage
of the seeds left by visitors.....

........but also feed naturally in the surrounding trees

Shag surprise and the Stock Dove roost growing

A light, but freshening SE wind. Mainly overcast, but showers held off till after dark.

Two Grey Wagtails have been re-sighted recently, both on the same date and both in the same locations as their previous sightings.

15/12/2024 - Ian Hartley saw ALL6554 (M/L, B/V)  again at Glasson Basin where he first saw it on 21/10/2023 .  It was ringed 13/09/2022.

15/12/2024 - Steven Jones re-sighted ALL6067 (R/M, Y/L) at the South Wales sewage treatment site where he first saw it on 04/10/2024. It was ringed 06/09/2022.

See sidebar for scheme details.

Pete managed an hours seawatch this morning. The only bird of note was a distant Red-Throated Diver floating in with the tide.

Near Naze/Heliport (Howard)

Only 7 Knot roosting today.

Red-breasted Merganser 1 female feeding.

Shag 1 - first calendar year (first Shag record since early October)

Immature Shag

Oystercatcher coming in to land

Stone Jetty (Malcolm)

Just a brief check this lunchtime 

Common Scoter 8-9

Female/immature Common Scoter.

Great Crested Grebe 2

Winter Plumage Great Crested Grebe

Middleton Nature Reserve (Malcolm)

A quick check of the main pond saw wildfowl largely unchanged, but 2 Tufted Duck today.

Male Tufted Duck

I positioned myself on top of the hill on the southern half of the reserve to watch the birds come in to roost as it became dark.

Jackdaw 180 minimum

Just a few of the Jackdaw 

Peregrine Falcon 1 flew off with a relatively large black bird, presumably one of the Jackdaw.

Wood Pigeon 12

Stock Dove 68 were seen flying in, the largest flock was 25, most just in twos and threes. Then a flock of 44 were flying around, but it wasn't clear if they were new birds, or some of the earlier birds had been spooked. It was quite dark even when the first birds arrived so pictures not great.

This is how dark it really was, and these two were some of the early birds

These shots are artificially bright (aren't cameras getting clever!)
The middle bird is missing half a tail

These are some of the flock of 44 late birds.

I managed a clip of the 44 birds coming in to roost

Barn Owl 1 - I had been looking out for it, but it didn't hunt on the hill while I was there. I just managed a glimpse of it through the trees on the eastern edge of the reserve at 15:55. It was probably hunting over the pasture between the reserve and the houses along Middleton Rd.

Just out of the recording area (quite a bit out actually, but it was heading our way). Howard managed this shot of Lapwings mobbing a female type Hen Harrier as it flew past Teal Bay

High Brent numbers, but an awful "count"

A fresh SW wind, overcast with a couple of short showers in the morning.

South shore (Malcolm)

Some days you get everything (well, most things) right. Other days you don't. Today, I didn't!

Pale-bellied Brent goose c90. - I walked along the south sea wall on the rising tide, specifically to watch any Brent geese flying from the north side, so that I could make an accurate count. I had reached  the lighthouse before they came past.

A flock of 37, I assumed that was it, so I headed for the waterfall. Looking back another flock was passing, it seemed to be twice the size of the first. I "dashed" back to the high point of the scrub on the roundhead, but by that time the flock was strung out and I just managed a shot of about half of them before they were lost from view.

It looks like the large second flock continued further south. As I was walking back, I could see some brent on Red Nab, but 37 flew south as I was walking back along the wall and none remained when I reached Red Nab.

The last of the brent leaving Red Nab. It was still quite early in the tide, long
before it reached Potts Corner, so presumably they were heading further south.

Although I've called them Pale-bellied Brent, all I can really say is that all the ones that I saw and photographed were pale-bellied (not my finest hour!)

Wigeon 282 - a nice precise count as they were waiting on the sea while the tide reached Red Nab.

Wigeon moving from the north to the south side of No.2 outfall

Eider 3 north

Redshank and Turnstone on No.1 outfall

Black-Headed gulls don't often get a mention. These two in the Harbour

First calendar year Cormorant in the Harbour

At the saltmarsh 

Linnet 16

Reed Bunting 3

Male Reed Bunting 

North shore (Malcolm)

I just checked the shore out from Whinnysty Lane in this "evening's" fading light. Hoping to do a better job of counting the brent. There were already c20 on the shore another 5 and 37 arrived from the south, but most headed off again some to the north and others back south.

Eider 121

Red-breasted Merganser 5