Only skear news, so far

A dry overcast morning, two afternoon showers then the sun came out early evening. A SE wind.

Heysham skear (Malcolm)

I checked this morning on the ebb tide 09:30 - 11:30. Then a quick look on the flood in the evening sunshine.

Eider 15

Eider (and a Redshank)

No Merganser, Grebes, Little Egret or Shag seen.

Oystercatcher 400

Curlew 25

Black-Tailed Godwit 6 south at 09:30

Black-Tailed Godwit

Redshank 120

Turnstone 45

Knot 2000+

They were feeding on the bare skear bottom, that was stripped clean of mussels by storm Amy. There now seems to be plenty of small mussels here. I don't know if they are new seed mussels that have taken advantage of the vacated space, or they were small enough to be protected by the rocks and not washed away in the first place. Either way the Knot were making short work of them.

One of a UK scheme flagged Knot swallowing a small mussel

Unfortunately, after eating a few the Knot just rest in large groups while their meal is processed (their gizzards crush the mussel shells to allow digestion). This makes it very difficult to see if any are flagged.

A blanket of resting/digesting  Knot

Some new flagged birds were seen. This is a UK scheme, that currently 
uses three characters. Presumably this two character bird was an early
one. Details awaited

It was very pleasant this evening - Knot landing as the incoming tide 
moves them on

But still very difficult to read any flagged birds. One here is flagged
but they were facing the fresh wind which blows the blade of the flag
behind the Knot. Still, it's nice to see so many feeding again

Oystercatcher, Curlew and Knot

Nice Goosander surprise

Early morning and evening showers, but dry in between. A light east breeze early on freshening throughout the day.

Heysham Nature Reserve 

Report by Pete:

Not much migration wise with just three blackcap of note in the nets operated by Jean  

plus the Marsh Tit recaptured again and long eared owl disturbed just before dawn.  

New birds in the nets:

Blackcap 3

Goldcrest 2

Blackbird 1

Blue tit  2

Dunnock 1

Greenfinch 8

Chaffinch 6

Goldfinch 5

Wren 3

Brambling heard flying over, about 20 woodpigeon south but only 6 redwing seen and single figures of grounded blackbird 

No little gull or kittiwake on long range check from OE in good light eg shag identifiable on jetty 

At the same time there were Juvenile Shags on wooden jetty and north of the area feeding off the Morecambe town hall. 

Middleton Nature Reserve 

I had a quick look at the main pond mid morning (Malcolm)

Tufted Duck 6

Gadwall 6

Little Grebe 1

Tufted Duck

Little Grebe

Later Janet took this clip of a Roe Deer on the southern section 

Imperial Rd (Malcolm)

A quick passing check

Water Rail one making contact calls

Cetti's warbler 1 singing

Common Snipe 1

Kestrel 1

Heysham skear (Malcolm 11:00 - 13:15)

Very low neap tides at the moment and very little of the skear was exposed.

Shag at least 2 juveniles fishing

Juvenile Shag

Goosander 10 in one raft as I was leaving, I didn't see where they came from

Ten Goosander, one here is unusual enough!

Jackdaw, also unusual here, I can't recall seeing one before

Oystercatcher, Curlew and Turnstone in similar numbers to recent.

A partially leucistic  and a typical Oystercatcher 

Knot 1750 - 2000 they were lifted twice by raptor attacks, probably a Peregrine, but it did look small, possibly a Merlin. Either way it left the Knot nervous and flighty. Not so many flagged birds seen today.

Some of today's Knot

Little Gull lingers

Short and relatively infrequent showers throughout the day. A SW wind.

South shore (Kevin Eaves)

1st calendar year Little Gull

Adult Kittiwake, both on No.2 outfall

Ist calendar year Shag near the wooden jetty

Heysham skear (Malcolm) 09:00 - 11:30

Nothing on the sea except for at least one juvenile Shag

Juvenile Shag, possibly the same as Kevin's bird

Little Egret 3

Waders pretty much as recent except 

Sanderling 1

Knot 1200

Sanderling amongst the Knot. It must have quickly moved on. I was distracted by
the orange flagged Knot, and when I looked for the Sanderling again there was
no sign of it

There were a decent number of flagged Knot seen, but they weren't all so easy to read.

Sometimes you have to wait for a wave trough to reveal the flag

I also had to wait out a couple of showers, but it was well worth the wait.
Over ten new flagged birds were seen, many seen here in previous years
showing site fidelity.

Little Gull blown in

Overnight rain then a surprisingly dry day with a fresh west - SW wind.

Heysham skear (Malcolm) 09:00 - 10:00

Shelduck 5 heading south against the wind.

Shelduck 

No Eider, Mergansers or grebes seen

Little Egret 4

Shag at least 1 juvenile 

First calendar year Shag

Oystercatcher 800 (probably not really any more than of late but there was very little of the skear exposed today and they were more concentrated.

Curlew 30

Redshank 50

Knot just 100 scattered around today, but there was one new flagged bird.

Turnstone 30

Sanderling 1 flew south across the skear

South shore

I walked along the sea wall this afternoon towards high water (Malcolm)

Little Gull 1 first calendar year on No.2 outfall. It wasn't there when I walked out, but was on my return.

Very awkward looking into the afternoon sun

But I ended up with some reasonable shots. It was still there 30 minutes
later when Pete and Jean were scanning for wind blown stuff.

Shag 1 juvenile on the wooden jetty.

First calendar year Shag

Cormorant flying to the wooden jetty

Shelduck 1 south 25 around Red Nab

Wigeon 80 at Red Nab

Good day for ringed waders

An opposite day to yesterday. The rain stopped over night and the west wind eased. Leaving a fine, largely sunny day.

Heysham skear (Malcolm) 08:45 - 11:15

Pink Footed goose 320 south in one skein

Pink-Footed geese

Eider just 1 male. No Mergansers seen.

Great Crested Grebe 1

Little Egret 6

Jackdaw 1 east - it makes you wonder how many of the Crows that pass over are on the move.

Oystercatcher 300 including one ringed bird

Ringed as a chick in 2016 at Glen Clova, Angus, Scotland 
Thanks to Richard for sorting this one out

Curlew 30

Bar-Tailed Godwit 1

Redshank 80

Turnstone 40

Knot 2,000+ eventually. Initially there were only 250 resting, mainly in the water

Some of the early Knot

But more kept arriving throughout the morning, each only a smallish flock, but eventually there were over 2000. They were still favouring the water, but viewing conditions today were ideal with the sun behind me and I managed to read a good number of coded birds from three different schemes.

Ringed at the Wadden sea Holland

A UK scheme, this one ringed at Merseyside 

Same UK scheme, but the yellow ring denotes ringed in Scotland 

Ringed in Iceland

The incoming tide eventually flushed them all.

Middleton Nature Reserve (Janet)

Water Rail 1 squealing

Robin

Tufted Ducks and Mallard

The female Mute Swan giving the cygnets high level flying experience.
Definitely a hint!

Common Darter