Knot favouring the south side

A dry day with sunny spells. A light SE breeze

 

Heysham Nature Reserve 

Ringing report by Jean:

The weather forecast didn't look that promising, one said windy from the south, another said rain first thing. In reality it was a SE wind, not too strong and cloudy - ideal for ringing! So I stuck 3 nets up and caught 73 birds! 13 species as follows:

Goldfinch 15 new, 8 retraps (all since August)

Long-tailed Tit 8 new (one flock)

Goldcrest 5 new, 2 retraps (from 25/9)

Blue Tit 6 new, 1 retrap (from July)

Chaffinch 5 new, 1 retrap (October 2024 and March this year - regular winter visitor?)

Greenfinch 5 new, 1 retrap (from July)

Chiffchaff 3 new

Coal Tit 3 new, 1 retrap (recent)

Grey Wagtail 4 new (colour rings added)

Great Tit 3 retraps (one from July, two very recent)

Robin 2 new

Blackcap 1 new (male)

Dunnock 1 new

Heysham skear (Malcolm) 10:45 - 12:00

Very low neap tides again, so very little of the skear was exposed.

Eider 2 female

Great Crested grebe 4

Shag at least 1 juvenile 

Resting Shag, with Piel Castle in the background 

Little Egret 4

Gulls 50 mainly Herring gulls and mostly adult or sub-adult. They have stopped eating the small mussels whole and are dropping large ones to open them.

Herring gull with a mussel. They take some breaking open at this size!

This clip is from yesterday 

Oystercatcher 300

Curlew 45

Redshank 180

Knot 25 (14, 6, 4 and 1)

Turnstone 60

Ringed Plover 19

Juvenile Knot

South shore (Malcolm) 15:15 - 16:15

Just a check of the waterline out from Ocean Edge. 

Shelduck 152 - they were spread all over the shore in all directions. The shore is covered in tiny snails which also attract the Knot and Dunlin.

Oystercatcher 80

Curlew 100

Bar-Tailed Godwit 40

Grey Plover 9

Knot 2000

Dunlin 500

Some of the Godwits

Five of the Knot were flagged, but I only managed to read one of them

Apart from the Oystercatcher, they were all very flighty and soon left to the south.

Bar-Tailed Godwits, Knot and Grey Plover

A line of Knot past the StenaLine

There's always one that doesn't notice that all the rest have gone! Dunlin

Cormorants heading back to the wooden jetty