Nice weather, good coverage, first Chiffchaff!

A warm sunny day with a light variable breeze

Shaun Cole managed a thorough check this morning:

South side 07:30-11:00:

Red-throated Diver 1 drifting in.

Greylag Goose 3 in.

Pink-footed Goose 64 + 32 in & c240 out.

Pale-bellied Brent Geese 58 Red Nab on the way back at high tide.

Whooper Swan 1 in.

Wigeon 226 (no 2 outfall).

Eider just 7 drifting in.

Common Scoter 4 across the bay from Barrow to outfalls, then an arc past Fleetwood and Rossall Point. 

Cormorant 47 roosting on the wooden pier.

Shag adult on to the wooden pier at 08:45.

Grey Plover 56. (waders feeding on shore between OE surface water drainage pipe and No 2 outfall).

Bar-tailed Godwit 90.

Knot c2000.

Dunlin c500.

Sanderling 2.

Turnstone 11 (no 1 outfall).

Meadow Pipit 14 in.

Rock Pipit pair Roundhead. 

A really close porpoise off the harbour mouth heading in.

Chiffchaff feeding at the anemometer - first this spring 

In addition David Talbot and Mark had 5 Stonechats at OE saltmarsh. Also a Small Tortoiseshell butterfly near the heliport

I just had a short walk from Red Nab to the saltmarsh (Malcolm). Nothing seen that isn't covered above so just a few shots:

Brent geese and Wigeon on Red Nab

Reed Bunting 

Stonechat 

There was clearly something happening here, I suspected that it was a Merganser, but I was wrong.

Middleton Nature Reserve - Janet

Gooseaander 1 male on the "no swimming" pond

Gooseander

Still 2 males and at least 1 female Shoveler on the main pond

North shore 

Howard checked the high water Heliport roost

c3000 Knot, several flags eventually read

Later all 3000 moved to the skear, but they were soon disturbed by a dog walker and they moved further north.

Still surrounded by White-Fronts

A SE wind in the morning switching to SW in the afternoon. It rained whilst the wind was shifting.

Just my stuff so far, and I didn't manage to get out till mid afternoon - Malcolm

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Mute Swan pair plus two immature birds confined to the peninsula 

Tufted Duck 8

Gadwall 2 pair

Shoveler 2 males but only 1 female seen

Mallard not counted 

Coot 6

Moorhen 1

Little Grebe 1 

Shovelers shovelling 

Female Gadwall

Male Gadwall

Quite a lot going on in this clip, including the Little Grebe early on.

Imperial Rd (checked in passing this morning)

No Stonechats seen 

Roe Deer 3

All three deer in this shot and the following clip. The third is difficult 
to see, but it is bottom right

Long legs are ideal for a bit of head scratching.

Both of the relatively new Rookeries were busy. There were at least 25 Rooks in the trees near the roundabout east of Imperial Rd, which is just out of the recording area. At Least 22 Rooks in the one on Middleton Rd which is in the recording area. Exact numbers here was complicated by the presence of Carrion Crows as well. There was a lot of noise!

Just outside the recording area - the horse paddock behind Middleton Parish Hall. This is directly opposite the Rookery on Middleton Rd.

Redwing two. 

Slightly further outside the recording area Heaton Moss. All the following shots are from the road to the Golden Ball (Lancaster Rd) where it meets the road to the bypass (Moss Rd).

Whooper Swan 12

Whooper Swans with Pink-Footed geese behind

The Whoopers and most of the geese were on the far side of the River Lune. But there were 40 geese on the Heaton side, including 12 Russian White-Fronted Geese. Yesterday, Pete advised: there were over 300 Russian whitefronts with pinks on Aldcliffe - got to be some over heysham soon! 

But we are getting very few Pink-Footed geese passing over Heysham at the moment so I checked Heaton marsh. 

White-Fronted Geese with Pink-Footed Geese behind

This is just a location shot, most of the White-Fronts are to the right of centre.

Same shot but zoomed out further to show the edge of the road. But they
are by no means guaranteed to be here. I have checked several times since
 they have been around the area, and today was my first sighting.

Any sightings of White-Fronted geese within the Heysham recording area would be very much appreciated.

Waders playing hard to get!

A dry day with occasional sunshine, a SE wind

South shore - Malcolm 09:00 -11:30

I went to check the shore out from the saltmarsh, but I was a bit late in the tide and the waders were already heading south beyond the recording area

Bar-Tailed Godwit 25

Grey Plover 20

Knot 2000 

Dunlin 1000

Knot and Dunlin heading south

I caught up with them beyond the recording area, this shot just to show
that a few of the Knot are turning to summer plumage 

Pale-bellied Brent goose 35 flew south from Red Nab

Some of the Brent heading south

Rook with what looks to be an injured leg

North shore - Howard - around high water

Checked heliport this am, c1000 knot on naze, flushed by a sparrowhawk, they flew around a while then settled mid way on outerwall with oystercatchers 

Knot on the Near Naze, you can just make out a Dutch scheme bird in the middle

Rock Pipit

Carrion Crow with a treat, likely pinched, from the cafe

Zero knot on sunnyslope, a handful at park st, c500 on teal bay shoreline.

Eider out from the Sunnyslopes groyne

Imperial Rd - Malcolm

A quick passing check at lunchtime failed to locate any Stonechats 

Buzzard 2 both flying around, the gulls weren't impressed!

Buzzard

At least one more Stonechat

An early shower then overcast till more extended rain over lunch. The sun came out this afternoon and it ended very pleasant in the light onshore breeze.

Heysham skear - Malcolm 13:30 - 15:30

I started later than I would have liked, but waited for the rain to stop.

No wildfowl other than 17 Eider heading back into the bay.

Little Egret 2

It seems a Peregrine had been waiting for the rain to stop too. It chased two small flocks of Knot north as I was walking out.

A little unusually the only other Knot were 500 strung out along the middle of the mud to the south of the skear.

A line of Knot strung out in front of Heysham Head

They were lifted by an alarm calling gull and they flew to the skear.

By the time I reached them the sun was out. I could only find one marked 
bird. One of a Dutch scheme, quite an old one as it should have a lime flag.
Unfortunately the flag is missing and it could have been in any one of eight
possible positions. The flags are made of very light, flimsy plastic and are
designed to outlast the average life of a Knot. But no guarantee that they
will outlast a longer lived Knot.

This is another aging Knot. One of those seen yesterday. We have now received
its history. It was actually flagged at the first ever session of the UK orange flag 
scheme in 2017 at Merseyside. It has subsequently been recorded in several UK
locations plus Holland and Iceland. Its flag looks in remarkably good condition 

Bar-Tailed Godwit 16 feeding and resting along the waterline to the south of the skear.

Redshank 500

Dunlin 250

Dunlin

Other waders similar to recent 

Imperial Rd 

I popped by on my way home Malcolm

Stonechat pair - they were along the fence between the bypass roundabout and the gate blocked off with boulders. Easily visible from the road

Female Stonechat

They seemed to be finding plenty to eat 

Male and female Stonechat

Janet checked this evening. They were still around and still flighty

The drakes are overwhelming the ducks, plus another Stonechat

Overcast, but mild with a light variable breeze.

Middleton Nature Reserve main pond - Janet

Still two pairs of Shoveler

The male Mallards wouldn't leave this female alone

Cormorant 

Imperial Rd

I checked just after lunch - Malcolm

Water Rail 1 squealing

Mallard pair

No Stonechats seen.

Janet checked mid afternoon 

Stonechat 1 male

North shore

Shag 1 off the skear - David Kaye

I checked the skear twice today (feeling fresh, well not as tiered, after not managing a walk yesterday) Malcolm

10:00 - 12:00

Mute Swan 1 immature flew north

Pale-bellied Brent goose 35. 8 seen flying to the fishing platform rocks where they joined others. Later all 35 flew back to feed around the skear.

Pink-Footed goose 22 to SE

Eider 88 - these are just some of them. The males displaying, but it all seems relatively amicable.

Wigeon 4

Red-breasted Merganser 4 - another female with more suiters than she probably wants, although I always get the impression that the males are more intent on impressing each other than impressing the female.

Little Egret 2

Oystercatcher 800

Curlew 20

Redshank 120

Turnstone 40

Knot, initially there were just 100 scattered around, then a flock of 1200 arrived from the north. Not many were flagged but there were some new birds.

This lime flag is part of a Wash scheme. JAC. I couldn't help but say "Hi Jac"
 No reaction, probably heard it before!

I returned this afternoon at 14:30

The or a immature Mute Swan was to the south of the skear

The Wigeon were resting along the waterline 

The Brent geese were scattered over a rapidly greening skear

There were more Redshank 200, and Turnstone 80.

c500 knot were around in several small flocks, I managed tho check the largest (200) for flags but there were none. I was just heading off when large numbers began arriving. There ended up being three flocks, totalling 2400. The light was going, as was my stamina! But I headed back. I checked a flock of 900, but could only find 4 flagged birds. Partially down to the fading light, but mainly as not many were flagged. Fortunately two were new for this winter.

This are some coming in to land