Almost a washout

A very light east(ish) breeze. Rain till mid morning then dry with an odd glimpse of sunshine.

Only my stuff so far (Malcolm). And my only available time for a walk today coincided with today's only prolonged rain!

Heysham skear - low water 08:30

08:30 was also the time of today's "sunrise". It didn't happen!

Carrion Crow on a rock 09:15

Also 09:15 the Ben-my-Chree approaching Heysham Harbour

Cormorant on Conger Rock 09:30

Pink-Footed goose 156 in four skeins south (three skeins before the rain eased)

All four skeins, by necessity, very low

Pale-bellied Brent goose 16 minimum - just 2 seen flying in from the west. Later as I was walking off there were 16 feeding high up the shore, likely more closer to the play area.

Some of the Brent geese feeding high up the shore 

The rain eased at 10:00.

Knots 500 in 3 feeding groups. 

Knot

Unfortunately, I only had time to check a few of them for rings/flags before two Peregrine Falcons attacked and completely cleared the Knot from the skear.

One of the Peregrine is the one with a dislocated talon.
A slightly worse shot than one I didn't think good enough to post the other day.
But times are hard!

There were some birds on the sea today at least.

Eider 13

Red-Breasted Merganser 4

Great Crested grebe 3

Other waders

Oystercatcher 1,000

Curlew 3

Redshank 10

Turnstone 15

The rain cloud was moving north, but it wasn't much brighter behind it.
I'd run out of time anyway, so time to leave.
Things look to be even grimmer tomorrow!