Shrimping season begins

Today we went from drizzle to mist, then back to drizzle again! A light east wind in the morning switched to the west after lunch.

Heysham skear (Malcolm)

Pale-bellied Brent goose 26 minimum, but basically they were all over and around the skear. These had just come in and landed on the shallow water in the SE skear corner. They start by taking a drink, the water here will be brackish as it is fed by a large freshwater runoff.

In contrast, these three landed directly on the skear to feed.

Pale-bellied Brent goose and Oystercatchers

Eider c70 including a distant raft

Red-breasted Merganser 5

Great Crested grebe 3

Great Crested Grebe and Eider

Little Egret 4

Grey Heron 1

A change in the wader mix today.

Oystercatcher 1,500

Curlew 100+ most resting high up the shore and others, coming in from the east, regularly joining them.

Knot just 1 seen on the skear plus a distant flock of 100 to the north

Bar-Tailed godwit 17 in a loose flock heading south

Turnstone 30

Turnstone

Redshank 200+, a big increase and for a good reason, the first onshore breeze for a few days had muddied the water in the shallow margins. This in turn brought large numbers of early stage (tiny) shrimps within their range. This clip shows Redshank, Black-Headed gulls and a Little Egret feeding on the shrimps. They are a bit small to tempt the Heron though.