Icelandic visitor returns for the winter

It remained dry till light showers started late afternoon. A light SW wind

South shore

I checked the shore out from the saltmarsh then back to Red Nab (Malcolm) 08:30 - 10:30

Pink-Footed goose one skein of 28 north

Shelduck 210

Little Egret 6

The heavy rains of storm Amy has changed things towards the waterline. New drains have formed, some running NE to SW as opposed to the normal SE to NW. This restricts the stretches of waterline that are safe on these fast flooding spring tides.

Not that it would have made any difference today the only waders along the waterline were

Curlew 150

Oystercatcher 140

Even scanning along the waterline far to the the south saw no other waders.

Dunlin 13 (6, 4, 2 and 1) were feeding, hidden in the newly formed drains

Dunlin

Some of the drains cutting across the mud. You need to keep on the shore
side of them when spring tides are racing in

Golden Plover 1 flew south

The only other waders were close to the saltmarsh 

Redshank 43

Lapwing 1

This was a bit odd. A gang of Carrion Crows were making a racket and all the other Crows on the shore flew to join them. There ended up being 60 of them chasing one small raptor.

At least I knew that I would be alerted if anything else moved through. But nothing did.

Wigeon 53 left Red Nab early to feed at the saltmarsh, none remained on Red Nab

Wigeon. This isn't the creek through the saltmarsh but the secondary 
creek along its southern edge 

Linnet 100+ around the saltmarsh

Rock Pipit 3

Wheatear 6 - all were quite rufous and they were moving through quickly. 

Wheatear

Kevin Eaves checked after lunch.

A Wheatear on Red Nab was almost certainly additional, and it too quickly moved on.

Kingfisher 1 around Red Nab

Heliport wall (Malcolm)

Just a quick look on my way home saw a significant increase in Oystercatchers since yesterday.

These were the Oystercatchers yesterday 

This is the same stage of the tide today

This Icelandic ringed bird was with them today. Resting at the very edge
of the group in the same spot it favoured last winter. It wasn't there yesterday.
Ringed at Selfoss,Svarfhólsvöllur (golf course) Iceland as a breeding adult 
in 2023 and it bred there again in 2024. It was seen several times at
Heysham last winter. We await news of if it bred there again this year.

A flock of Lapwing arrived.

Lapwing

42 Lapwing ended up joining the Oystercatchers

Nice to see some youngsters amongst them

Middleton Nature Reserve (Janet)

Cetti's warbler singing in the central marsh

Janet will be restricted to mobile phone photography for some while, but she still managed some lovely pictures.

One of the cygnets, a Mallard and two Tufted Duck on the main pond

Speckled Wood 

Little Egret out from the foreshore

And a garden safari 

Red Admiral

Carder Bumblebee and a Marmalade Hoverfly