Plenty of Brent, but a bit erratic

A mainly sunny day with just a very light west breeze.

North shore

Pete Crooks checked from Knowlys Rd

70 Pale-bellied Brent Geese – distantly off the children’s play area.
1 male Common Scoter – offshore
1 Grey Plover – among the large numbers of Oystercatcher and Knot on the tidal skears

And from the Battery car park
c.400 Eider drifting south on the ebbing tide
1 Guillemot
10 Red-breasted Merganser (6 males, 4 females)

I checked the skear as it became uncovered (Malcolm) 09:30 - 11:00

Two lots of Pale-Bellied Brent goose flew north 6 and 71, the latter would have been Pete's birds, presumably disturbed, but no idea where they were heading.

Brent geese heading north

Eider 114

I managed a marginally better shot of the Common Scoter today

Great-Crested Grebe 4

Great Crested grebe

Little Egret 4

Oystercatcher 700

Curlew 10

Redshank 150

Turnstone 40

Dunlin 1

Knot 1500 - they were resting on the edge of the skear and didn't move for 30 minutes until a Peregrine Falcon attacked them.

You can see the Peregrine in each of these shots. This attack was unsuccessful 
but all these Knot continued south.

Later 400 Knot arrived to feed, possibly additional, or possibly some returning. I managed to read two new flagged birds for this winter.

Imperial Rd (Malcolm)

I just got out of my car and both Stonechats flew over to "greet" me. I suspect that on one visit I must have flushed a tasty morsel for them, and they were hoping for an encore.

The male rested on this post only 3m away

The female was close too, but I zoomed out to show the location. That's my
car parked just by the blocked entrance 50m from the roundabout.

I was only there two minutes!

Stonechats still around

Mainly overcast with the odd light shower. A very light variable breeze.

Heysham skear (Malcolm) 09:30 - 10:30

Pale-bellied Brent goose at least 4 out from the play area.

Eider 80

Eider

Common Scoter 1 male

Male Common Scoter out to the west of the skear

It had been diving, but refused to perform when I took a clip.

Great Crested grebe 4

Great Crested grebes

No Shag or Mergansers seen

Little Egret 4

Oystercatcher 800

No Curlew seen

Redshank 250. They appear to be feeding on tiny shrimps. It seems early for shrimp fry, but I seem to say that, perhaps slightly earlier, every year.

Knot 150

Turnstone 40

Turnstone

Dunlin 60 in one flock that arrived from the south

Some of the arriving Dunlin

Imperial Rd (Malcolm) 10:45

Teal 1 

Kestrel 1 male

There were lots of winter midges in flight, presumably just part of a greater insect presence. Both Stonechats were close to the boulders c50m from the bypass roundabout.

Male and female Stonechats

Football pitch next to Heysham Cricket Club (Malcolm)

A number of Oystercatchers have taken to feeding there, yesterday and today  they were joined by two Mistle Thrushes

Mistle Thrush

An hour's sunshine at each end of the day

A sunny start and end to the day, but showers in between, some very heavy and including hail. A strong SW wind

Knowsley Road - Pete - a very quick visit pre heavy rain 

Shag 2

No Brent geese seen

South shore - Malcolm

I checked in both the sunny periods, nothing different feeding on the outfalls in either visit.

Morning:

Pale-bellied Brent goose 2 flying around. A little unusual at this stage of the tide

Brent geese catching the low morning sunshine 

Shelduck 43 most on the mud out from the foreshore 

This one has a metal ring

They filter small invertebrates out of the mud, it is a little easier in the plentiful areas of shallow water provided by the earlier rain.

Wigeon 150 most sheltering from the wind along the edge of No.2 outfall.

Some of the sheltering Wigeon

Rock Pipit 1 flew from Red Nab into the Power Station grounds

Kingfisher 1 flew across Red Nab

Afternoon/evening:

Pale-bellied Brent goose at least 42 on Red Nab

Shelduck and Wigeon similar to this morning, but now also on Red Nab

Wildfowl on Red Nab

I managed to spot the Kingfisher, before she spotted me

I set off in strong, albeit low sunshine at 15:25. But by 15:30 I was already losing the light!

This is the reason we are currently experiencing neap tides.
First Quarter Moon

Good numbers of Brent again

Showers in the morning but dry this afternoon. The SW wind freshening all day and was strong by evening.

Just my stuff so far today (Malcolm)

Heysham skear 10:30 - 11:30

We are on very low neap tides at the moment, not much of the skear was exposed and not much was happening.

Shag 2 juveniles 

Juvenile Shag

At first the only waders were Oystercatcher, Redshank and Turnstone. Then a flock of c1,000 Knot stopped off briefly before continuing south.

Imperial Rd

Also not much happening 

Common Buzzard 1 flew east

Grey Heron 1

Water Rails at least 2

South shore 13:45 - 14:30

Once again the waterline was devoid of waders

The Peregrines were chasing the gulls. 

I don't know if they do this for practice, "fun" or if they are genuinely
trying to catch one. Either way this gull was screaming.

We've seen this Peregrine with a broken talon in previous years.

Pale-bellied Brent geese 81. They arrived in two groups, 68 and 23. This is the largest group arriving.

This s the second lot arriving a few minutes later

Brent Geese, Shelduck and Wigeon feeding on Red Nab

Shelduck 66

Wigeon 140

Shag at least 1 on the wooden jetty

The smaller bird in front of the old lighthouse door is a Shag

Long-Tailed Tits passing through my garden, none were ringed.

Good stuff at the fringes

After a morning shower, the rain managed to hold off till mid afternoon. A freshening SE wind.

These shots are from the Main pond on Middleton Nature Reserve yesterday. Janet can't use her large lens until her arm is fully recovered from surgery, but the wildfowl here can be obliging

Mallard and Tufted Ducks

Male Tufted Duck showing his wing plumage 

Most of the wildfowl was gregarious, but this Moorhen was keeping its distance 

Heysham skear (Malcolm) 09:45 - 11:15

I went down quite late in the rising tide. No Brent Geese, Eider or Mergansers seen.

Little Egret 5

Shag at least 2 juveniles 

Two Shag

Cormorant 

I had wondered if the Knot might turn up late. When I started there were just a few hundred scattered around the skear in small groups. Most hunkered down against the surprisingly cold SE wind.

Knot, looking nearly as cold as I felt!

But as the rising tide consolidated them they were joined by others arriving from the north. Eventually c2,000 were on what was left of the skear. Still not easy to check for flags, but I did see some, although most had already been seen this winter.

Orange flag with white characters 76U. This is a typical sighting.
Ringed at Merseyside last May.

Grey Plover on the skear is slightly unusual, although there was one for a 
while last winter

The water vapour in the ship's exhaust is condensing, making it look like
one of the steam ships that used to leave the harbour......apparently.

Imperial Rd (Malcolm)

Just a brief stop off on my way home failed to relocate the Stonechats.

Cetti's warbler 1 seen

Kestrel 2 

Grey Heron 1

Heron

Mediterranean gull 1 - it was with other gulls in the field to the east of the road. This puts it just outside the recording area, but clearly easily seen from it

Mediterranean gull, left centre, coming in to land

Mediterranean gull with Common gulls

There didn't seem to be a particular reason for them to be there, no sign of any slurry spreading. I checked again in passing this afternoon and the field was empty.

The was a report of a Black Redstart near the Sunnyslopes groyne. Pete went to check it out and managed to see it, near the houses just south of the slipway at Rydal Rd. The northern boundary for the recording area land birds is Knowsley Rd, and you would be hard pushed to see it from there, so just outside the recording area. Hopefully it will hang around.