Storm Floris had more impact than it seemed!

Showers till mid morning, then increasingly bright. The early SE wind switching to SW by lunchtime.

South shore (Malcolm)

A quick morning check from saltmarsh to Red Nab was wet and underwhelming!

Just 3 Linnet on the saltmarsh 

Rock pipit 1

Whimbrel 1

No Mediterranean gulls seen on Red Nab

Later Janet checked the Nature Park 

Southern Hawker

Red Admiral, Carder Bumblebee and an Aphid 

Heysham skear (Malcolm)14:00 -16:00 

Great Crested Grebe 2

Little Egret 7

Gulls 300, mainly Herring  - I had just got to my favourite spot to check the gulls for rings and anything more unusual (hoping for a Caspian!), when everything lifted.

Just a fraction of the lifted birds

I quickly scanned for a raptor, but the culprit was someone kitesurfing. The birds all settled again, just to be spooked by a return pass. After several repeats I was about to call it a day, but the kitesurfer finished before me and tranquility returned.

Two of the gulls were colour coded, but both seen before and both from Walney.

In recent weeks I have been avoiding the skear edges, particularly the south side. As the summer progresses a process called layering occurs as mud is deposited on top of the mussels on one tide and the mussels move higher up to compensate, then the process repeats. The mussels prevent the mud from being washed away and the mussel bed grows in height. This makes for difficult walking as the mud below the mussels is unconsolidated and very soft. This process is most pronounced along the skear edges where some of the beds were 0.5m high - but not any more!

When I said the mussels prevent the mud from washing away, that referred to
normal summer conditions. Storm Floris has flattened them! All these mussels
are alive, but no longer anchored to anything and most will wash away

These are some of the mussels, I have seen the gulls swallow them at
this size, but for some reason they weren't interested in the loose easy pickings 

This is the south side, all this as far as the rock just left of centre in the
background was mussel beds last week

The gulls persisted in prising out individual mussels to eat. Presumably their
instinct or just experience tells them that this is the way to feed on mussels

The north side too has lost a 50m strip of mussel beds

This is one of the ringed birds feeding along the new northern edge 
of the skear

Some of the now loose mussels will aggregate and bind to each other, but most have already been washed out to sea. This short clip shows gentle drainage as the tide ebbs, but even this was moving the smaller remaining mussels.

Oystercatcher 600

Curlew 60

Redshank 140

Turnstone 120

Curlew 

Turnstone

Redshank 

An evening check along the south wall - Anne Stupple

Little Gull 1 2cy near No.1 outfall

Shag 1 juvenile on the wooden jetty