A good tide for Brent geese

Large dark clouds rolled through all day, but somehow it managed to stay dry. Sunny spells in between. A west wind.

Heysham skear - Malcolm 13:15 - 14:15

I went out later in the tide than recently. Low water today was 15:00, and at 2.4m it would expose the SE skear corner where there is lots of sea lettuce. As I approached the corner, there were already 2 Pale-bellied Brent geese feeding, but they were soon joined by 17 others. So 19 Pale-bellied Brent Geese, possibly joined by more later as I didn't have time to stay till low water.

This is one of the early arrivals 

These are the others coming in, they actually land in the bay just west of the skear corner.

Pale-bellied Brent geese

They immediately swam towards the skear corner and began feeding. These tides are ideal for them. The sea lettuce is still underwater but easily in reach. You can see them eating the lettuce in this clip.

This is typical of the area they were feeding at. This is actually one of the
pools in the skear middle, so there are other easy pickings for them.

Quite a striking shot of some of the Brent. Looking into the light,
but dominated by dark clouds.

There were some quite dramatic skies

Eider 4

Red-breasted Merganser 2

Great Crested Grebe 5

Little Egret 3

Oystercatcher c1500

Curlew c40

Grey Plover 1

Redshank c60

Knot c300 (no colour marked birds seen)

Turnstone 45

Dunlin 55

Ringed Plover 1

Ringed Plover having a paddle

Oystercatcher having a swim

Dunlin

South sea wall - Kevin

Nice to see this Buff-tailed Bumblebee on the sea wall today.
We're still clinging on to autumn.