Mainly waders, and wet ones at that!

It rained pretty much all day. A light east wind.

Just my stuff so far (Malcolm)

Middleton Nature Reserve 

A quick passing check of the "no swimming" pond saw the female Goosander has returned.

Two Chiffchaff singing and a singing Cetti's warbler in the SW corner of the pond.

Heysham skear - low water 10:45

No geese

Eider 67 - this male was trying to dislodge mussels from a rock.

Red-breasted Merganser 5

Waders similar to yesterday except

Bar-Tailed Godwit 74 - feeding along the waterline on the south side of the skear. One catches a decent sized Lugworm in this clip.

South shore on rising tide in the afternoon 

I went down an hour earlier in the tide than yesterday, there were a lot of waders along the waterline, but not much variety. Mainly Knot, at least 2,500, plus more further south. These neap tides the water only comes in slowly, allowing more time for them to feed. These are just a tiny fraction of the Knot. The next but last bird in this clip sports an orange flag.

Knot with coded orange flag. Unfortunately in this case the code was obscured.

Bar-Tailed Godwit 200

Bar-Tailed Godwit

Don't know where the Dunlin were. There were less than 10 with the Knot

Oystercatcher 60

Redshank 75 closer to the saltmarsh 

Shelduck 9

Pale-bellied Brent goose 5 on Red Nab. They appear to be a family group, 2 adult and 3 first winter.

Just out of the recording area - horse paddock behind Middleton Parish Hall

Glossy Ibis seen in the morning, not checked later