The forecast for this morning was for very light SE wind so I set three nets at dawn. However, the wind quickly became quite strong and gusty causing the nets to tangle in the bushes repeatedly. I did manage a few captures, including the first Willow warbler for the season.
Eight birds only in total comprising:
Single retrap Cetti's Warbler and Chiffchaff
Lesser Redpoll 4
Chiffchaff 1
Willow Warbler 1
Heysham skear - low water 08:40 (Malcolm)
Pink-Footed goose 175 north in 3 skeins. A small skein of 9 south
Eider 32
Red-breasted Merganser 18
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| Three male mergansers on the north side beyond a Honeycomb worm reef |
Teal 1 female
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| Teal resting on the sea |
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| She was spooked by this low flying flock of Oystercatchers and flew off to the west. She is still on the sea in the centre of this shot. |
Great Crested Grebe 1
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| Great Crested Grebe by an embryonic Honeycomb worm reef on the south side. The reefs rarely fully develop on the south side as this is the side that takes the brunt of the winter storms. |
Oystercatcher 1,000
Curlew 10
Redshank 120
Knot - 1,500 were feeding on the outer skear. When the tide moved them off they flew south, again in an atypical formation of a long thin line low over the sea.
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| A short section of a long line of Knot flying very low and straight to the south |
Carrion Crow 6 were feeding around the skear plus 3 that flew from the south, over the skear and continued NW.
Meadow Pipit 1 in/off then east
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| It was particularly clear early on. The dark ridge on this horizon is the recently formed shingle bank out from Fleetwood, and the duller hills behind are the hills of North Wales! |
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| Alan Physick found this unfortunate creature on the south sea wall. Newt sp. A gull will have picked it up inland, perhaps the Nature Park, it will have dropped it as newt skin produce unpleasant tasting secretions. The newt's defence failed to save this individual, but the gull will be unlikely to take another one. |
