A mainly overcast day, fortunately the rain managed to hold off till after lunch. A SE wind.
Heysham skear (Malcolm) 09:30-10:30
I walked the tide in, but these high spring tides come in very quickly, so it didn't take long.
Eider 45
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| Male Eider, moulting out of eclipse |
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| Eider |
Red-Breasted Merganser 8 female/immature, When one dives they all dive.
Shag 3 juveniles at least
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| This juvenile Shag was resting amongst the north side honeycomb worm reefs |
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| Later three were resting on conger rock on the south side of the skear |
Little Egret 5
Gulls c100 mainly Herring
Oystercatcher 700
Curlew 35
Redshank 80
Turnstone 60
Ringed Plover 2
Swallow 5 singles south
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| On 5th September I posted this shot showing a 50m strip of mud right across the skear. Which was unusual. |
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| This is the same strip today, the power of the spring tides has removed all the mud leaving a 50m wide strip of skear bottom. Which is even more unusual! |
South shore (Malcolm) 14:00 - 16:00
I started on the shingles between the saltmarsh and the faux castle just after high water, then checked the saltmarsh and foreshore.
There were just four Ringed Plover on the shingles
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| Two Ringed Plovers in this shot |
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| Juvenile Ringed Plover |
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| 19 Carrion Crows in the foreground of this shot |
By this time the rain was quite heavy and I switched to my old pocket camera, which still produces adequate record shots.
Common Sandpiper 1 - it flew across the saltmarsh east to west then returned later
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| Rear view of a Common Sandpiper |
Wheatear 3 along the foreshore
Linnet 33 on Ocean Edge grass
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| Some of the Linnet and a Pied Wagtail |
Rock Pipit 3 on Red Nab
By late evening the rain was torrential, the wind freshening quickly and shifting to SW. Hopefully, we'll get something interesting blown in over the coming days.