Another wet night, but just the odd shower during the day. A fresh SW wind
Heysham skear - Malcolm 09:15 - 11:15
Eider 5 males including 1 immature
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| Drake Eiders, the one on the right is a 2nd calendar year bird |
Great Crested Grebe 5 (2 pairs and an individual)
Little Egret 7
Pink-Footed Goose 1 "shot at" looking bird resting on the mud and occasionally waddling off in front of the tide.
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| Pink-Footed goose |
Gulls 150 mainly Herring gulls.
I'd set off at low water to check the progress of the seed mussels further out on the skear. Once past conger rock there was a thin blanket of them covering most of the surface.
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| This is the size of the seed mussels, that's a £1 coin |
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| This shows the typical coverage |
The above mussels are on a relatively muddy area and are tightly packed together. They are still tiny and you would imagine hardly worth the effort of eating. But the gulls were feeding on them nevertheless. They were favouring the rougher ground where the seed mussels wouldn't be so embedded.
Oystercatcher 1000+Curlew 1
Whimbrel 2 flew north when moved on from the skear
Dunlin 6
Sanderling 48
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| These flew west along the northern side of the skear |
Smaller groups were still feeding along the north side.
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| The bottom bird here has a small bivalve |
By this time the tide was racing in, I knew it wouldn't be long before these had to move on.
I managed another look on the ebbing tide this evening 17:30 - 19:00
Additional to this morning:
Eider pair
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| Female Eider, she's not floating like a balloon, but stood on a rock |
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| Male Eider |
Curlew 2
Knot 1
Sanderling just 10. None to start with then a single bird flying around, later joined by 4 then 5 more.
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| Sanderling |
Middleton Nature Reserve - Janet
Very busy over the main pond. The young Coots were oblivious of the action going on all around them.
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| Swallow |
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| House Martin |
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| Swift |
