More than one way to clear a skear

A dry day with quite a bit of sunshine in the afternoon. A WNW wind.

Heysham skear - Malcolm 09:45 - 11:30

Eider 1 female

Wigeon 1 female

So common over winter, but a bit unusual at this time of year

Red-breasted Merganser 2 

Red-breasted Merganser

Great Crested Grebe 1

At 10:10 every bird on the skear lifted, the sort of reaction that a passing Osprey generates. But this one started with the inshore birds first, so possibly a large raptor passing close inshore, which would help explain why I couldn't see anything.

Anyway it helped me estimate numbers

Gulls c600

Oystercatcher c2000

Fortunately everything soon settled again, but now further away.

I managed to get close to the gulls again and saw two green ringed birds, but both already seen this summer.

The green ringed bird on the left is the one I have already posted showing that
it looks to be a Herring Gull x Lesser Black-backed gull hybrid. The gull behind
is a Herring gull with its mantle in full sunshine. The paler bird on the right is a 
Herring gull with its mantle in the shade. The other two are Lesser Black-backed

I was just moving to check more gulls when they all started lifting again. But this time not because they were afraid of something, but because they were attracted to something! A Grey Seal had caught a Smoothhound. Smoothhonds are just one of several members of the shark family found in the Bay, but offer no threat to people (they eat crabs). Seals are messy eaters and the gulls were gathering as it ripped chunks off it. It went on for a while, these are just a few extracts strung together as the Seal was underwater for much of the time.

You can make out the classic "shark's" dorsal fin in this shot

Once again I found myself on a virtually empty skear. Even after the feeding frenzy finished, most of the gulls opted to stay on the water so I headed back.

No waders other than the Oystercatcher were seen.

Imperial Rd - Malcolm

Just a passing evening check

A Buzzard was constantly calling and it seemed to be from the copse. But when one appeared, it flew to the tall trees at the edge of the bypass clutching a rabbit, so unlikely to have been the one calling.

Buzzard and Rabbit

A Chiffchaff called briefly and there was one burst of song from a Cetti's warbler.

Two Sedge warblers were seen only and both carrying food.

Little Egret 1 flew west

Swallow 1 feeding