Long-Eared Owl and another(?) Yellow-Brow

A cold start to the day, it was mainly dry with just a couple of showers, one heavy in the afternoon. A light variable breeze till lunchtime when it freshened a little from the west.

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Report by Jean:

On arrival just before it got light, a Long-eared Owl, illuminated by the headlights on Pete's car, shot out of the bush nearest the road and headed low just to the north of where I was putting up a net. Interestingly Cetti's Warblers which have been vocal recently before dawn were conspicuous by their silence. A new one was caught and ringed. Have the others moved on??

It was a fairly quiet morning with 21 birds ringed over a period of 5.5 hours. The Chiffchaffs continued to pile through and nearly 40% of the catch consisted of Chiffchaffs. A Yellow-browed Warbler was seen in the vicinity of one of the nets but it cannily avoided going in. It had a metal ring on one leg, suggesting it may be the one caught recently on the reserve.

List of birds ringed (unusually no retraps):

 Blue Tit 1

Great Tit 2

Cetti's Warbler 1

Long-tailed Tit 2

Chiffchaff 8

Blackcap 1

Wren 2

Robin 1

Grey Wagtail 1 (though 3 others ignored the nets)

 Meadow Pipit 2

There was hardly any visible migration but birds were up there. Winter thrushes are arriving: 2 Redwing dropped in, followed by another 2 later on and a total of 6 Song Thrushes flew in. Noisy Blackbirds heard before it got light may well have been resting migrants.

Other vis:

Pink-footed Goose 95

Jackdaw 2

Rook 2

Carrion Crow 3

Skylark 3+

Grey Wagtail 4 (includes the one ringed)

Pied Wagtail 4

Meadow Pipit c10

Greenfinch 2

Linnet 4

Goldfinch 5

Siskin 1+

Reed Bunting 2

Also present:

Water Rail 2

Mediterranean Gull - 2 flew over later in the morning heading for the shore.

Common Darter from Janet. Also a Chiffchaff heard

South shore (Malcolm)

A walk out from the saltmarsh as the tide was rising. We are still on neap tides, but that is about to change quickly.

Grey Plover 3 resting high up the shore, near the saltmarsh.

Grey Plover

Not only do these tides come in slowly, there were no waves reaching the shore. This tends not to move the non feeding waders forward till the water is "too high", then they all move off. So it was today.

Bar-Tailed Godwit 93

Knot 100

Bar-Tailed Godwit and Knot, graded by leg length.
The air was still cold, causing the water vapour from No.2 outfall to condense.
And the hills of the South Lakes nicely lit by the morning sun 

Not long after the above shot they were off

Dunlin 40 

Sanderling 1 - these were feeding so mainly in front of the waterline, but some distance away,

Sanderling just behind the Carrion Crow

This location shot shows it to be just out from the sloping sea wall

Curlew 30

Oystercatcher 60

Mediterranean gull 13 - 11 at the waterline (unfortunately all with legs obscured) plus 2 on Red Nab.

Mediterranean gulls

It was 09:30, high water. This is the view looking back to the saltmarsh 
A vast expanse of dry mud, only fit for resting on, but by Tuesday it should
be full of feeding opportunities again higher up the beach.

Ringed Plover 7 flew south

Ringed Plover

Redshank 58 near the saltmarsh 

Lapwing 42

Shelduck 125. Nothing to feed on the beach at high water, so they took to upending to feed on the invertebrates on the mud below. In this clip they are directly above the drain they were feeding on yesterday, and no doubt fed there again when the tide ebbed today. You wouldn't think a few tiny molluscs would justify this effort. They must have been hungry.

Pink-Footed goose 89 south in 2 skeins  - not the same as seen from Middleton so 184 total 

Linnet 50+ on saltmarsh 

Wheatear 2 along foreshore 

Rock Pipit 1 on foreshore 

Little Egret 9 between saltmarh and Red Nab

Immature Little Egret, Med gull and a Bar-Tailed Godwit on Red Nab

Wigeon 1 on Red Nab

Wigeon

The Carrion Crows were feeding on Periwinkles again at the start of the sea wall

Meadow Pipits 5 in off

Skylark 1 grounded and giving a fine display 

Skylark with a bouffant Dusty Springfield would be proud of