Calm to begin with then a light SW breeze for the rest of the day, easing again by late evening. Plenty of sunny spells.
Heysham skear (Malcolm) 07:45 - 10:00
We are back to spring tides now so I went out to see how the middle skear fared through storm Floris.
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| This is the area between the inner and middle skear that was covered in loose mussels on Thursday. Some of the mussels have managed to clump together, but much of the area is just mud, and still surprisingly soft! |
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| Further out on the skear has also been transformed. Here some of the mussel beds have been undermined and the mussels washed away. But some of the mussel beds have just been covered with the resulting mud |
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| It was heavy going. I am less than half way across to the more consolidated north side here. The stench of decay was everywhere, clearly the buried mussels were covered in mud too deeply for them to escape and were already decomposing. |
By the time I reached the north side, the tide was coming in quickly. In these calm conditions it is easy to see the effect of the tide. This is not a particularly high tide at 8.8m.
Red-breasted Merganser 1 female type
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| Red-breasted Merganser |
Great Crested grebe 11 - all adults moulting from summer plumage
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| Great Crested Grebe |
Shag 1 juvenile
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| Juvenile Shag looking pale in the low morning sunlight |
Cormorants 7
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| Cormorants on a honeycomb worm reef on the south side. Neither the south or north sides reefs were noticeably affected by the storm |
Little Egret 12
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| Six of the Egrets |
Oystercatcher 400, but many more on the shore on both sides of the skear
Curlew 60
Whimbrel 1 heard only
Redshank 150
Turnstone 130
Ringed Plover 17 (12 close inshore plus 5 on the middle skear)
Dunlin 4
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| Redshank |
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| Ringed Plover and Dunlin |
Gulls 250 mainly Herring scattered around the skear. Plus a number had decided to rest on the mud to the north of the skear, perhaps they didn't like the smell of rotting food.
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| Gulls on the north shore |
I thought when I saw them that they would make a good early warning if anything passed over from the north, and sure enough just as was heading off, they all lifted and in their wake...
Osprey 1 heading south.
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| Osprey |
Swallow 1 south
South shore
Shaun Coyle 10:30-12:00:
Little Gull 2cy on number 1outfall then roosting on Red Nab.
Mediterranean Gull 2 adults & 7 juvenile also on number 1.
Little Egret 5.
Turnstone 23 roosting on the Wooden Pier.
Rock Pipits pair on Red Nab.
Janet checked later
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| One of the Red Nab Rock Pipits |
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| Cormorants on the wooden jetty |
By late evening there were gulls and Swallows anting all over the recording area
