Caution!
The council have put a barrier around an "oil" spill on the shore near Half Moon Bay cafe. Seems odd, the tide won't have reached that far recently. Please avoid and advise anyone who walks their dogs in that area to take care.
Heysham skear (Malcolm)
I checked on the ebbing tide in the morning and another quick look as the tide covered the skear this afternoon.
No Brent geese seen in the morning.
Eider 14
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| Second calendar year Herring gull |
I've never seen any gull feeding as daintily as this young Herring gull, so I took a clip.
Oystercatcher 2,000
Curlew 15
Redshank 70
Dunlin 30
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| Dunlin |
Turnstone 35
Ringed Plover 6
Knot 1,200 - most were resting amongst the stones on the skear. Even so four new flaged birds for this winter were found.
These very low neap tides are a double edged sword for waders. On the bad side, the tide never goes out far enough to expose their favoured areas, but the good side is that the tide never fully covers the shore, so there are feeding opportunities during all daylight hours.
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| Some of the Knot resting on the skear |
So I returned later hoping the tide would push the Knot on to the beach, but only 50 arrived and none of them flagged. The remaining birds flew to NW in several flocks.
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| Knot on the beach south of the skear |
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| Bar-Tailed Godwit 1 |
Pale-bellied Brent goose 51 - 8 were already on the skear when a further 43 arrived from further north.
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| Some of the eight Brent on the skear, these are having a drink in a freshwater runoff |
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| Some of the Pale-bellied Brent geese |
Middleton Nature Reserve (Janet)
A Barn owl was hunting over the central marshes again and Janet managed these lovely shots before it crossed to the south side of the Reserve.
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| Barn Owl |
