South shore
Janet had a walk along the sea wall, and is now recovered enough from her injury to use her larger lens.
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| This Black-Headed gull seems to have found a razor clam. There is no way it could have caught it. The clam must have washed in dead. |
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| It was clearly pleased with its find |
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| Wigeon heading towards Red Nab as the tide rose |
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| Redshank |
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| Black-Headed gulls and a Redshank on No.2 outfall |
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| Little Egret fishing |
In the Nature Park
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| Long-Tailed Tit |
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| Goldfinch |
I had walked out to the waterline and was walking in with the tide (Malcolm)
Bar-Tailed Godwit 180
Grey Plover 1
Knot 2,000+
Dunlin 60
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| Solitary Grey Plover |
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| Knot and Dunlin in tight formation |
More Knot were arriving all the time.
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| Dunlin, Knot and a Bar-Tailed Godwit |
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| Common and Black-Headed gulls, Knot and Dunlin. And out at focus at the back, Bar-Tailed Godwit and an Oystercatcher |
The tide was pushing them up the shore quickly, in order of leg length. Dunlin first, Knot then Bar-Tailed Godwit. The brown foam is perfectly natural spume. Just the bubbles produced by protein molecules as the waves break. They begin as pure white, but become brown as they pass over the mud.
For most of the time, most of the Knot were in the water, but the tide was coming in very quickly now and causing them to rush along the mud.
It was all a bit frantic, but I did manage to read at least six colour coded Knot.
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| This Knot is part of a Dutch based ringing scheme - details awaited |
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| Eventually some of the Godwit and Knot ended up just out from the saltmarsh |
Shelduck 45
Pale-bellied Brent goose 6 on Red Nab
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| Brent geese and Wigeon. You can see the pure white bubbles (spume) being created in the background |
On saltmarsh
Lapwing 7
Reed Bunting 3
Linnet 15
Rock Pipit 1 plus 1 on Red Nab
Middleton Nature Reserve (Malcolm)
I went to the hill on the southern section just after the sunset to see if the Barn Owl returned. It arrived at 15:58 a few minutes earlier than yesterday and slightly lighter. Unfortunately still light enough for people to be exercising their dogs and two were, so the owl didn't stay to hunt just here, although I'm sure it would have done later.
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| Barn Owl |
