Stonechats on the move

Showers all day, most light. A SSE wind

South shore - Janet

Stonechat 1 female near the harbour lighthouse.

By this time a shower had started

Janet also saw one on Middleton Nature Reserve yesterday and five males were together pilling lane ends - obviously passage in these southerlies 

Rock Pipit 1 female with nesting material also near the lighthouse 

Only the female builds the nest

They are very secretive about the nest location and never fly to it when they
know they are being watched. Possibly why she dropped the material.
Easy enough to pick up again.

Cormorants looking like book ends. How long before the phrase book ends
will have to be googled to understand what it means? 

Cormorant in breeding plumage

Turnstones on the honeycomb worm beds below the roundhead

Little Egret at Red Nab

North shore - Malcolm

It felt like the weather was taking the mickey! Every time I stepped out of my car it began raining! I checked the skear twice. This morning on the ebb tide the rain was constant but fine. There were no Brent Geese and nothing seen on the sea. There was just one flock of 300 Knot, the rain had eased and I was just going to check them for flags when a Peregrine attacked and cleared them to the south.

I tried again on the flood tide after lunch, it had been fine all through lunch, but this visit coincided with the only heavy shower of the day. I didn't get far before accepting defeat and retreating.

Still no Brent geese and no Knot seen.

Pink-Footed goose 42 - 35 to SE as I was pulling up (still dry at that point) another 7 low to SE just as I was setting of and the rain wasn't too heavy.

So back home to watch my garden birds......but not for long.

This male Sparrowhawk made sure the garden birds kept clear.