A dark-belly turned up

Another dry but cooler day. A NE wind freshened during the day becoming very strong by mid afternoon, before easing again.

Middleton Nature Reserve (Janet)

A couple of shots from yesterday

Summer Plumage Little grebe

South shore (Malcolm)

Just a short walk from the saltmarsh to Red Nab and back through the Nature Park.

Rock Pipit 1 display calling and flights along the foreshore.

Rock Pipit

Meadow Pipit 16 north. Five landed briefly near the displaying Rock Pipit but quickly moved on.

Meadow Pipits

Pied/White wagtail 1 north

Redshank 145 along the waterline. The only other waders visible along the waterline were Curlew and Oystercatcher 

On Red Nab

Pale-bellied Brent goose 22 

Shelduck 15 plus 20 near the waterline

Wigeon 180

Nature Park

Chiffchaff 1 singing

These Blue Tits seemed to be checking for a suitable nest hole

Near Naze and Heliport (Malcolm)

I just had a look in passing to see if there were any grounded migrants. There wasn't, but there were 3,000 Knot. Unfortunately, very flighty and 2,000 quickly left towards Heysham Head, the other 1,000 out of sight beyond the Oystercatchers on the Heliport sea wall. Still I managed to read a few flags before they left.

These are some of the departing birds. None obviously with a coloured flag.
But the circled bird does appear to have a black flag

This Knot with a black flag was on the north shore last week. We have now
received its "history". Ringed November 2018 eastern Wadden Sea Holland.
Amazingly, this is the only confirmed sighting since it was ringed!

North shore (Malcolm)

I went out on the skear this afternoon towards low water. The NE wind was surprisingly strong out there!

Pale-bellied Brent geese 33 (almost certainly including this morning's 22)

Dark-bellied Brent goose 1 - I didn't see it arrive, but suspect that it just had done so, as it was having a thorough bath.

It climbed out to dry itself off......

......but as soon as it opened its wings to shake them......

........the wind blew it back into the sea.

Probably all of this morning's Knot were on the skear. The strong NE wind stirred up the water enough along the northern edge of the skear to bring small shrimps into the shallows.

Knot shrimping in the shallows, you can see the line towards the top
of the picture where the clear water becomes muddied.

Despite the high number of Knot, checking for flags was difficult, partly as many legs were hidden, but mainly as it was barely practical to stand still! Some new birds for the skear were seen though. 

Redshank and an orange flagged Knot. Unfortunately, in this case part of the
code is obscured by a blob of something on the flag - you can't win them all!