Eider changing their tune

A dull day but it remained dry. Calm in the morning then a light east breeze.

Red Nab to saltmarsh - Malcolm 10:00 - 10:30

Pale-bellied Brent goose at least 16 feeding on Red Nab rocks

Wigeon 50

Brent geese and wigeon

Shelduck 29

Shelduck 

Little Egret 1

Reed Bunting 3 around the saltmarsh 

Reed Bunting

Long-Tailed Tits 8 in the Nature Park

Imperial Rd - Malcolm 11:00

Teal 3

Moorhen 2

Water Rail 1 calling

Kestrel 1

No sign of the Stonechats 

Howard checked the high water roosts for Knot. None around the Heliport. A few knot visible on outside of sunnyslope, nothing on the groynes through Morecambe or teal bay. 

Later c2000 knot arrived on broadway groyne then down to feed as tide dropped, another c500 knot on park street groyne and feeding before being flushed by dog walkers.

Heysham skear - Malcolm 14:30 - 16:00

Pale-bellied Brent goose 48 - groups of 10, 22, 12 and 4 flew north to a line of rocks out from the Grosvenor fishing platform.

Some of the Brent landing

They all ended up on the line of rocks mid picture 

Later as the light faded, they flew back to the freshwater runoffs on the 
skear to freshen up for the night.

Eider 208 around the skear, others seen flying north. They were making a funny sound today. Normally the air is full of the males almost comic cooing. But today it seemed that the females were making most of the noise, a clucking sound. I took this clip, but disappointingly, you can't really hear them until towards the end.

Knot 300 - 250 and 50. I hung around to see if one of the large flocks turned up for a bath before bedtime, but they didn't today.

The Carrion Crows make me smile, they strut around calling, clearly thinking that the skear belongs to them. How arrogant! They should know better, it clearly belongs to me 😊