Heysham Bird Observatory: 10/14/24

A cold start, but quite warm by the afternoon. Plenty of sunshine and a light east breeze.

The title says corvids, but the vast majority were Jackdaws flying south(ish).

228 headed south over the saltmarsh at 09:30. Then headed back before disappearing to the east.

120 headed east over my house (Malcolm) at 11:20

77 flew south over Middleton Nature Reserve 14:40. Plus another 43 milling around on the south side.

So 425 Jackdaws over plus 43 possibly residents. And that must only be a sample, the saltmarsh and MNR sightings from only an observational window of 90 minutes total. And the ones over my house would have gone unnoticed if I hadn't have popped into the garden.

This looks to be a blank shot, but if you open it and zoom in you can see the birds
in the saltmarsh flock. They moved over a large front and were well spread out.

Not all were Jackdaws, there were at least 3 Rook in the above flock.

Rook

Other stuff

South shore (Malcolm)

A morning check around 09:15 high water. Saltmarsh to Red Nab

Linnet c30 on saltmarsh - no sign of the Merlin this morning

Knot 64 resting on Red Nab

Some of the Knot, also Oystercatcher and a Turnstone

Shelduck 2

Wigeon 46

Little Egret 6

Grey Heron 2

Kingfisher 1 female

Not so obviously a female in this shot
(females have red on the bottom of the lower bill)

She flew from this perch to the large rock on the other side of the freshwater run off.

The tide is full at this point and just high enough to make this stream saline enough for sea fish to tolerate.

She quickly caught a common goby, this is just about as large as they grow

But it soon went down!

I know birds can't smile, but you have to say she looks content.
Not long after this she flew east along the foreshore rocks

I had a walk along the sea wall this evening. It had been sunny all afternoon, but now was clouding over. There was nothing new to see, but the evening light provided some opportunities to be "artistic".