It remained dry but mainly overcast till evening rain. A light south breeze.
Heysham Nature Reserve
Report by Alan:
I set just a couple of nets early this morning at Heysham NR. Expectations were not high at this date and especially after the continuous rain yesterday and during the night but surprisingly there were a few unringed
goldcrests about. Total catch was:
Goldcrest 7 + 2 retraps
Blackbird 2
Chaffinch 1
Wren 1
Treecreeper 1 retrap
There were quite a few grounded Blackbirds around the reserve taking advantage of the Hawthorn fruit crop.
The post has been playing up again. If you play a clip that clearly isn't what it is supposed to be click refresh and it should correct it.
Heysham skear
David Kaye
Pale-bellied Brent geese 23 at least
Shag on Conger Rock
Several Snipe off the play area
I checked 09:00 - 11:15 (Malcolm)
Pink-Footed goose 45 SE
Eider 2
Red-breasted Merganser 2
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| Red-breasted Merganser |
Little Egret 4
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| Little Egret heading off as the tide came in |
Skylark 1 east
I went to check the Knot, there were c4000 and for the most part just resting in large compact groups.
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| Not easy seeing any flagged birds when they rest like this |
There were three Peregrine attacks plus a couple of false alarms that shuffled them up, and I did manage to read some new flagged birds. I took this clip of the two Eiders having a bath (it seems an odd thing to say of a bird that will be in the water all day) while I waited for the Knot to resettle after an attack. It gives a sense of the activity.
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| As they settle again you can see their legs, but it isn't long before they are a consolidated block again |
As the tide rose they moved onto the mud on the north side. I thought that I would have a better opportunity here. But they were just standing still and the mud was so soft their legs, with any flags, just sank below the surface.
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| The nearest I got was when this Black-Headed Gull took exception to the overcrowding |
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| It scattered the Knot in front of it allowing their legs to be seen |
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| But it was all over very quickly and the only flag seen was this yellow flagged Icelandic bird. But it "disappeared" after this shot, unread! |
The Black-Headed gull wasn't the only bird taking exception. This Carrion Crow was cawing at me for a good 10 minutes.
It can't have been so upset though as it also continued feeding. Fortunately the Knot take no notice of their cawing.
