An oasis of nice weather in an otherwise wet week.

A dry and sunny day with virtually no wind........it won't last!

Imperial Rd (Malcolm) 09:30

Water Rail at least three calling.

Teal 1

Little Egret 1

Little Egret

Long-Tailed Tit 14 at least passed through

Long-Tailed Tit

Stonechat 2 - the female was busy feeding, but the male seemed to be enjoying soaking up the morning sun.

Male Stonechat. The drops of water are from the morning mist condensing.
 My glasses were almost constantly steamed up!

Kestrel 1

Kestrel

Heysham skear (Malcolm) 11:45 - 14:00

Pale-bellied Brent goose at least 26. Small groups (3 - 7) were flying in both directions.

Pale-bellied Brent geese

Eider 26

A line of Eider on a mirror sea

Great Crested Grebe 6

Little Egret 4

Oystercatcher 1,500

Curlew 20

Redshank 80

Grey Plover 1

Knot 2,000

Turnstone 40

Grey Plover, Knot and Oystercatcher 

I was joined today by Isla Botting who is one of the team that flags Knot in the Wadden Sea, Netherlands. There were c1,300 Knot resting while the feeding areas on the skear became exposed. We positioned ourselves on the southern edge of the skear, hoping the Knot would feed on the relatively level areas there. But they moved to the north side and were joined by another 700 arriving from the south. 

We did see several flagged birds from three schemes, including one from the Wadden Sea.

This shot by Isla is one of the Wadden Sea Knot. 

This shot, also by Isla includes a knot still in semi summer plumage

Knot landing along the Northern edge of the skear

The reason why they chose the north side today, is that at this time of year huge quantities of tiny shrimps can be in the shallows. 

These Knot are after tiny shrimps

But for the moment they are out of luck! There will be some shrimps around, but the drain that normally passes along the north side has been diverted by the last storm. I had my small net with me today, and when these Knot moved on I tried in vain to catch a shrimp here.

A line of shrimping Black-Headed gulls 200m north of the skear showed
where the drain now empties into the sea.

I walked over to the drain and did a 5 second trawl with my small net

Brown Shrimps, still only tiny but a huge total weight of potential protein.

It had been a lovely afternoon, and up till this point no disturbance by Peregrines. But one arrived and all the Knot headed south. Interestingly, the Peregrine didn't follow them, instead it stayed and tried to catch one of the shrimping Redshank. Possibly they turned to Redshank in the Knot's recent absence. Or probably more likely, the Peregrines are aware that it is harder for the Redshank to quickly take flight when they are up to their bellies in water.