Very heavy overnight rain but a dry day with plenty of sunny spells. A fresher SW wind.
This from yesterday on the south shore - Clay Garland
A Rock Pipit was doing a parachuting display flight on the sea wall. (This is additional to the nine reported yesterday)
A leucistic Great Tit (possibly the one mentioned in 22nd Nov blog post) in the nature reserve.
Heysham skear - Malcolm 09:30 - 11:00
Pale-bellied Brent goose 47 feeding along the waterline to the south of the skear.
These are just a few of them amongst Oystercatcher, Knot and the odd Dunlin
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| Pale-bellied Brent, Knot and a Dunlin |
No Eider, Mergansers or grebes seen, but they tend to favour the north side on the flood tide.
Wigeon 1 male
Oystercatcher 1000, many more further south
Curlew 50
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| Some of the Curlew. You can see how the inshore wind is now colouring the shallows as it disturbs the mud. This provides better cover for shrimps and small fish to feed close to the shore. |
Redshank at least 400. They were everywhere, just resting, presumably having been shrimping on the ebbing tide. These are just a few of them.
Knot 650. There were 300 along the waterline, not one of them was ringed or flagged. A Peregrine lifted everything including another 350 Knot had been on what remained of the skear, they all left to the south.
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| The chaos caused by the Peregrine lifted everything |
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| Knot and Dunlin heading south |
Dunlin 25
Turnstone 60
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| Turnstone |
Very little seen in a quick check
Teal 5
Mallard pair
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| Mallard |
Middleton Nature Reserve - Janet
The Mute Swan pair were mating, when the male wasn't chasing the three remaining cygnets off the pond and onto the fringes.
Shoveler 2 pairs
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| Shoveler |
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| Still some Tufted Duck |
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| Cormorant |
