Lots of ducks.....only to be expected, it did rain a lot!

A fresh wind from the south to begin with then more westerly later. Rain, often heavy throughout the day.

Just my few bits so far (Malcolm)

North shore

Just a quick scan from the promenade didn't locate any Brent geese and no flocks of Knot seen

Middleton Nature Reserve 

A check of the main and "no swimming" ponds.

The "no swimming" pond is back to its normal level, but surprisingly sparsely populated.

Mallard 5

Gadwall 1 - The Gadwall that normally favour the "no swimming" pond have clearly got used to the more frequent disturbance of the main Pond.

Little Grebe 1

Main pond

Mute Swan pair plus one immature 

Mallard 17

Gadwall 23

Tufted Duck 1 drake

Tufted Duck

Moorhen 3

Coot 1

South sea wall

Shelduck 3

The tide was still a long way from the sea wall, but the Wigeon were starting to gather. 306 were counted, including these feeding along the sea wall near the wooden jetty. They do not eat the wrack, but there are small patches of green algae that attract them (when there is little else around).

There had been no sign of yesterday's Mallard, then somewhat surprisingly it flew in from the north side and landed on the sea by the wooden jetty. Clearly something here is attracting it.

Female Mallard

It swam to the rocks below the wooden jetty and began preening.

Strong winds tomorrow, but coupled with very low neap tides. Good for minimising the risk of storm damage, but probably not so good for bringing sea birds close inshore.