Plenty going on, but the best out of the area

A dry morning with sunny periods, showers in the afternoon. The early SE breeze shifted to the west and became quite a fresh wind by evening

Heysham Nature Reserve 

Report by Alan:

I went mid-morning to top up the feeding station.  Whilst I was there I decided to set just one net.  As the feeders were all empty when I arrived at 10:15 there few birds around but eventually 33 birds were caught. The net was operated until 15:00 and the majority of the birds came later in the session.  Predictably, a high proportion of the catch were retraps (18 of the 33 total).

There were 4 new Goldfinch, 2 new Greenfinch, 2 Goldcrest and a Chaffinch in addition to the Tit species and local retraps.

One of the  retrapped Great Tits was partially leucistic

South shore (Malcolm) 09:00 - 09:30

Just a walk from the saltmarsh to Red Nab then back through the Nature Park 

The only passerines along the shore were two Greenfinch on the saltmarsh and a Wren along the foreshore!

Greenfinch 

Red Nab

Shelduck 10

Wigeon 135

Pale-bellied Brent goose 4 (later in the tide they were feeding out from the play area on the north side - David Kaye)

Pale-bellied Brent geese

All four Brent in this shot, but they were definitely three together plus one

Wigeon

Little Egret 2

......one that got away!

Nature Park 

c40 Thrushes south looked to be Redwing 

Chiffchaff 1 calling constantly, but awkward to see

Imperial Rd (Malcolm) 09:45

Just a quick passing check

Common Buzzard 1

Buzzard

Kestrel 1 it was hunting over the roundabout on the bypass, hovering for a while, then deciding that it was easier just to watch from a perch.

Kestrel

Wood Pigeon 35

Thrushes sp c50 south

Pheasant 1

Middleton Nature Reserve (Janet)

Cetti's warbler 1 singing

Hairy caterpillar - Ruby Tiger?

Grey Squirrel

Heysham skear (Malcolm) 13:30 - 14:30

I went to check the Knot but didn't have long between showers

Three of the Pale-bellied Brent geese were in the SE corner, feeding on broken weed left by the tide.

Pale-bellied Brent geese

There were c2000 Knot but most hunkered down against the fresh wind

Plenty of Knot, but not many legs on show

I did manage to see a few flagged birds, before the next shower ended the 
session. An Icelandic ringed bird in this shot

Just out of the recording area - 1st winter Black Redstart on fish-tailed groyne opposite Strathmore Hotel, Bare end of Morecambe 0746