Morning showers, then dry and overcast. A light SE breeze dwindling down to nothing in the afternoon.
Heysham skear - Malcolm 14:00 - 15:15
A check as the tide was ebbing.
No Brent Geese seen
Eider 160, easy to see on a flat sea.
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| Some of the Eider heading back into the bay |
Red-breasted Merganser 2
Great Crested Grebe 2
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| Great Crested Grebes |
Little Egret 5
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| Herring gulls and Little Egret |
Oystercatcher 15000
Curlew 20
Redshank 180
Knot 80
Turnstone 40
Dunlin 70
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| Dunlin in the foreground, the Oystercatchers behind not included in the skear count |
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| Mainly Redshank |
The Redshank, Black-Headed and Common gulls were shrimping where the freshwater runoff flows into the SE skear corner. Presumably the runoff providing enough detritus to attract the still tiny shrimps.
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| None of the Knot were flagged, but this one had a distinctive white spot on its crown. One to watch out for |
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| This Oystercatcher with a partially leucistic head is even more distinctive. I tend to see it about one in ten visits |
Carrion Crows 25, they were being particularly noisy today.
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| Cormorant and Carrion crows |
