A light SE wind till mid afternoon, when it switched to the west. Mainly overcast with the odd shower.
Heysham Head - Josh Hedley
Osprey - 1 east at 09:55
Canada Goose- 4 north at 09:15
Rock Pipit- 1 display flight
Linnet- 9 (one juvenile bird)
Heysham skear - low water 08:30 (Malcolm)
Canada geese 7 came in off the sea from the west at 10:00 and continued north close inshore (additional to Josh's 4)
Eider 72
Red-breasted Merganser 2
Great Crested Grebe 3
Little Egret 5 minimum (5 on both south and north side, but they could have moved across when the tide started making)
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| Slightly ruffled Little Egret |
Oystercatcher 400
Whimbrel 1
Knot 450 - just 2 on the middle skear, but 250 flushed from outer skear by tide and another flock of 200 came in and immediately began feeding.
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| In contrast, the group that had been feeding on the outer skear just rested. These are just a few of them |
Sanderling 12 - they were feeding together along the water's edge. I positioned myself further inshore and the rising tide brought them right up to me. They were clearly searching for Shrimps, not catching many but they must have been finding enough to make it worthwhile.
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| They are perfectly camouflaged in this terrain - they disappear when they freeze. |
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| Sanderling |
Middleton Nature Reserve
Kevin and Alison had good close views of a small Hawker patrolling along the central path. It clearly had a green thorax and a mainly dark abdomen with some green. Again, the only logical species is a Hairy Hawker, but a different one to yesterday which had a blue and black abdomen.
