Lots of Knot

A warm largely sunny day with a light SE breeze

Heysham Nature Reserve 

Report by Jean:

The ringing today wasn’t as exciting as yesterday. A Chiffchaff and a Blackcap were the only warblers. An irruptive flock of 11 Long-tailed Tits were all new birds. A couple of Blackbirds were also new.

Overhead vis of southbound birds consisted of:

Brambling 1

Chaffinch 25

Redwing 16

Skylark 16

Starling 60

Woodpigeon 296 (includes 200 seen at Middleton)

Blackbird 19 took off from bushes and headed south.

296 Pink-footed Geese were seen, with 170 early ones that were probably ex-roost heading north and birds later in the morning heading south.

A female Brimstone butterfly next to office and two butterflies heading rapidly south, a red admiral and what was probably a glimpse of another

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Early morning ringing included:

A Blackcap, Treecreeper and three unringed Cetti’s Warbler 

Heysham Skear (Malcolm)

Two checks today, one as the skear was being covered 07:30 - 09:00. And again as it was uncovered 14:45 - 16:15

Pink-Footed goose 28 (20+8) NE

Pink-Footed geese catching the morning sun

Eider 80 

Some of this afternoon's Eider, there is another raft in the background 

Red-Breasted Merganser 2

Male Merganser

Great Crested grebe 1

Great Crested Grebe just swallowing a fish

Little Egret 2 this morning but 8 on the ebbing tide this afternoon.

Little Egret, also with a fish

Shag at least one juvenile each visit

Skylark 1 east this morning 

Common Snipe 7 individuals flew east this morning 

The reason for today's visits was to check the Knot. There ended up being an impressive 5,000 this morning, all eventually leaving to the south. There were 2,000 waiting for the skear to become exposed this afternoon, but no more arrived.

The inner skear was still in the shadow of the shore as I walked out this 
morning, but the sun was catching these incoming Knot and the
honeycomb worm reefs behind

More soon arrived and there were lots more to come 

They were very compact and the rapidly rising tide and at least one 
Peregrine Falcon kept moving them on. Still there was a reasonable 
number of flagged birds amongst them this morning, but again not
so many amongst the 2,000 this afternoon 

These are some of this morning's Knot blotting out the Power Stations

Dunlin 15 with the Knot

Curlew 40+ this afternoon. Other waders similar to recent 

Curlew and Oystercatcher