Rain and raptor(?) stops play

Intermittent showers (I suppose that's what showers are by definition!). A fresh west wind shifting to NW.

Middleton Nature Reserve

I had a look this morning - Malcolm

Main pond:

Mute Swan pair plus four remaining immature, although they weren't welcome!

The adult male Swan chasing an immature 

Shoveler 3 pairs, all oblivious to the Swan commotion and resting around the peninsula 

Let's hope they remain undisturbed 

Tufted Duck 3

Tufted Duck and Shovelers

Mallard 15

Coot 6

Little Grebe 1 trilling

"No swimming" pond

Just 3 Teal

Bullfinch 4

Greenfinch 4

Janet also checked the feeding area and managed to photograph another ringed Reed Bunting with enough ring detail for it to be identified.

Male Reed Bunting ringed on the Reserve 20/09/24

Roe Deer two of last year's youngsters 

Female on the right, the male on the left looks a bit "Bambi" legged!

Heysham skear - Malcolm 13:45 - 15:00

Pale-Bellied Brent goose 18 minimum scattered around the skear. There aren't great amounts of gutweed here, but there seems to be enough for small groups to nibble at without being disturbed.

It seems that the longer days are now allowing the patches of gutweed
to grow long enough to be harvested

Eider 33

Eider pair

Nothing else seen on the sea

Oystercatcher, Turnstone and Ringed Plover similar numbers to recent 

Redshank 250 many searching the shallows for shrimps

Redshank feeding in the shallow water coloured by the onshore wind

700 Knot arrived from the south and began feeding along the mud to the south of the skear, unfortunately a shower began at the same time making it awkward checking for flagged birds. I saw 3 but only managed to read 2

This orange flagged Knot stood in water......

.......until they moved over to the skear itself. One that got away!

As I worked my way across the skear the rain stopped. Then suddenly something lifted everything! It must have been something large passing over but I couldn't see anything other than the response of the birds. None seemed to be under attack, so unlikely to be a Peregrine. Presumably something had waited out the shower before moving off again. Wonder what? Another one that got away.

At least it allows a better understanding of what is around 

Gulls, mainly Herring, far more than what had been on the skear, many must
have been spooked from the north, possibly what triggered the reaction of the 
rest of the skear birds

All the Knot headed north, these are some of 45 Curlew that lifted, probably 
a typical number, but you don't often see them all in flight at once

This is the first Whelk egg cluster I have seen this year