A wild goose chase........it didn't end well

A dry but largely overcast day. A light south wind.

North shore (Malcolm)

I checked around the skear on the rising tide.

Pale-bellied Brent goose 30 at least. 

These Brent are the wild geese in today's title.

Today's high tide was 10.3m. That's just about as high as they get. Needless to say the water was gushing in, but there was one visitor who was determined to get close to the geese you can hear their calls as she approached, but they knew that they were safely out of reach. This spit disappears in the 30 second of this clip.

There was no other option she had to take to the water.

She swam against the tide, but it was rushing in and pushing her further and further from safety. This clip shows just how far out she was by this time.

If she had drowned, today's title would have said "ended badly". The tide pushed her into an eddy where she managed to swim towards safety, and 10 minutes after she entered the water a very tired vixen dragged herself out again. But she was walking so slowly she was barely fast enough to outpace the tide.

Her problems were far from over though, wet and exhausted she had to

find her way back to safe cover. 

Presumably she is from Heysham Head, there was only a narrow corridor to there now and that was busy with Sunday morning dog walkers. After a brief rest she set off, and the lack of any commotion when she was out of sight suggests that she avoided any further detection.

Caution - This could have ended up a lot worse, not just for the fox. I have many years experience of the tides here. Even so, I had to constantly check and move to ensure that I had a safe high route back, otherwise I would have been in the same boat, but without a boat! (Malcolm)

Apart from that it was uneventful:

Oystercatcher 1,000

Curlew 15

Redshank 40

Knot 2,000 flying around in all directions, presumably there had been some raptor attacks.

Dunlin 60

Turnstone 25

Middleton Nature Reserve (Malcolm)

Just a quick check on my way home.

Mute Swan pair on the main pond

Mallard 3

Gadwall 24 on main pond 3 on "no swimming" pond

Tufted Duck 3

Tufted Duck with Gadwall

Teal 2 flew over

Coot 7 on the main pond 3 on "no swimming" pond

Little grebe 2 on the "no swimming" pond

Cetti's warbler 1 singing from the northern end of the "no swimming" pond.