First winter thrushes

A dry day with plenty of sunshine, particularly in the afternoon. There was no air movement till late morning then a light west breeze

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Shaun checked first 07:30-09:30: 

Tufted Duck 38 & 14 Gadwall on Main  Pond.

Redwing 2, Song Thrush 12 & about 15 Blackbirds. 

Long-tailed Tit 14 & 6 Coal Tits.

Chiffchaff 3 (all unringed) and 4 singing Cetti's Warblers. 

I checked the "no swimming pond" at 09:00 (Malcolm)

2 Gadwall

4 Teal

1 Little grebe

Teal just landed

Teal

Janet checked the main pont 12:30. No one had seen the Whooper Swan this morning, unfortunately after following a trail of feathers Janet found its remains. It looks like a fox had killed it. 

Canada Goose 2 arrived then 4 more, they didn't stay long after this clip

Male Common Darter

Heysham Nature Reserve Shaun 

Singing Cetti's Warbler in the marsh 

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

There was no air movement at all and it was eerily quiet, not just the lack of wind noise but many of the birds were on the outer skear. But even those close by were unusually quiet.

Pink-Footed goose 109 in 2 skeins, 31 and 78. I took a clip of the first skein, not to show the geese but to demonstrate the silence! Even the geese seemed reluctant to call.

In contrast, when the second skein approached Heysham Head they were particularly noisy. I always feel when this happens its just more and more of the geese recognising that they are back in familiar territory.

Pink-Footed geese

Mute Swan 2 south. Only seen in silhouette so not possible to gauge their age.

Mute Swan

Not only was it quiet, it was featureless! The sea was flat and mirrored the grey
of the sky, there was no way of knowing where one ended and the other began

Eider 8

Red-Breasted Merganser 19

Red-Breasted Merganser. The ripples here are the result of the speed
of the incoming tide, there was still no wind

Great Crested Grebe 15

Great Crested Grebe

Shag 3 juveniles 

Juvenile Shag

Little Egret 15

Little Egret and Redshank 

Grey Heron 3

Grey Herons

Oystercatcher 600

Curlew 40

Redshank 120

Knot 60

Turnstone 44

Ringed Plover 2

Grey Wagtail 4 SE (2, 1 and 1)

South shore (Malcolm) 16:00 - 17:00

A pleasant walk out from the saltmarsh in the evening sunshine

Grey Wagtail - the tail less bird from yesterday was still around

Wheatear 1

Wheatear in the low evening sun

There was a feeding group of waders just out from the faux castle:

Dunlin 120

Knot 6

Grey Plover 8

Sanderling 3

Two of the Sanderling were resting most of the time, this Dunlin seemed to want to be "friends"

Grey Plover, Sanderling and Dunlin

One of the resting Sanderling continued to rest while the second did a spot of frantic feeding.

After a while they headed further south.

Shelduck 39

Just out of the recording area. Horse Paddock behind Middleton Parish Hall - Jean

15 Pied Wagtails and a Meadow Pipit

(28 Pied Wagtails plus an unringed Grey Wagtail yesterday)