Great Firecrest and YBW double!

A dry day with plenty of sunshine in the morning. A light SE breeze

Heysham Nature Reserve 

Report by Jean:

Ringing:

Only 9 new birds caught today. A case of quality rather than quantity:

Firecrest 1

Yellow-browed Warbler 1

Chaffinch 3

Goldfinch 2

Blackbird 1

Blue Tit 1

Male Firecrest

Yellow Browed Warbler

There was actually some vis this morning:

22 Fieldfare

30 chaffinch

55 Starling

Woodpigeon 674 - most in the first 45 minutes of daylight 

Chaffinch 90

Goldfinch 30 (one flock)

Carrion Crow 44

Skylark 4+

Siskin 1+

All south apart from 200 Pink-footed Geese which flew north and were probably ex roost from Cockerham Marsh.

Woodcock one calling from near the gate to the top path

Male brimstone butterfly flying about next to car park late am

South shore

I checked from Red Nab to the saltmarsh (Malcolm) 09:30 

Pale-bellied Brent goose 6

Brent geese and Shelduck

Pink-Footed goose 40 south, later 8 north

Shelduck 9

Wigeon 130 ended up on the saltmarsh 

Little Egret 3

Rock Pipit 1

Reed Bunting 6 at the saltmarsh 

Reed Bunting

No Shag seen at Red Nab, but later Kevin saw one near No.1 outfall

Juvenile Shag......looking shaggy!

Heliport wall

There were c2000 Knot roosting on the wall. Howard checked them but
could see no flagged birds - more on this later

Heysham skear (Malcolm) 14:00 - 15:30

Eider 62

It was all very serine this afternoon 

Great Crested Grebe 3

Shag only one juvenile seen.

Shag and a Great Crested grebe

Knot 2250 - a flock of 2000 arrived on the skear just as it was being exposed. They fed in the same area for an hour, and I checked them from all sides but I could only find five flagged birds. It puts yesterday's four flagged birds from a flock of fifty into prospective! The other 250 arrived later and headed to the seaward end of the skear, there was little point in following them as the light was already closing in.

This is slightly odd behaviour, the Black-Headed gulls normally feed like this when there is an abundance of shrimps. But it is a bit early for the tiny shrimps and the flat sea doesn't tempt the larger ones in. It is obviously related to the speed that these very high tides ebb, all kinds of small fish and invertebrates will be caught out. Although the gulls seem to be doing more arguing than feeding!