A dry day with plenty of sunshine in the morning. A light SE breeze
Heysham Nature Reserve
Report by Jean:
Ringing:
Only 9 new birds caught today. A case of quality rather than quantity:
Firecrest 1
Yellow-browed Warbler 1
Chaffinch 3
Goldfinch 2
Blackbird 1
Blue Tit 1
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| Male Firecrest |
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| Yellow Browed Warbler |
There was actually some vis this morning:
22 Fieldfare
30 chaffinch
55 Starling
Woodpigeon 674 - most in the first 45 minutes of daylight
Chaffinch 90
Goldfinch 30 (one flock)
Carrion Crow 44
Skylark 4+
Siskin 1+
All south apart from 200 Pink-footed Geese which flew north and were probably ex roost from Cockerham Marsh.
Woodcock one calling from near the gate to the top path
Male brimstone butterfly flying about next to car park late am
South shore
I checked from Red Nab to the saltmarsh (Malcolm) 09:30
Pale-bellied Brent goose 6
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| Brent geese and Shelduck |
Shelduck 9
Wigeon 130 ended up on the saltmarsh
Little Egret 3
Rock Pipit 1
Reed Bunting 6 at the saltmarsh
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| Reed Bunting |
No Shag seen at Red Nab, but later Kevin saw one near No.1 outfall
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| Juvenile Shag......looking shaggy! |
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| There were c2000 Knot roosting on the wall. Howard checked them but could see no flagged birds - more on this later |
Heysham skear (Malcolm) 14:00 - 15:30
Eider 62
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| It was all very serine this afternoon |
Great Crested Grebe 3
Shag only one juvenile seen.
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| Shag and a Great Crested grebe |
Knot 2250 - a flock of 2000 arrived on the skear just as it was being exposed. They fed in the same area for an hour, and I checked them from all sides but I could only find five flagged birds. It puts yesterday's four flagged birds from a flock of fifty into prospective! The other 250 arrived later and headed to the seaward end of the skear, there was little point in following them as the light was already closing in.
This is slightly odd behaviour, the Black-Headed gulls normally feed like this when there is an abundance of shrimps. But it is a bit early for the tiny shrimps and the flat sea doesn't tempt the larger ones in. It is obviously related to the speed that these very high tides ebb, all kinds of small fish and invertebrates will be caught out. Although the gulls seem to be doing more arguing than feeding!
